Alfred Willibur is an ordinary shopkeeper with ordinary problems. He has just agreed to go into partnership with his landlord, much to the chagrin of his wife. His daughter is seeing a nice young man whose family are less than keen on their only son's attachment to a tradesman's daughter. On top of all this, his wife has engaged a lodger in the form of an irritating middle-aged spinster. But when Alfred begins to find himself attracted to the new shop girl, he starts down a dangerous road which will see a lifetime of disappointment spill over into murder....

Originally published in 1937, this brooding psychological crime novel is a literate study of what makes a murderer.