When the wealthy financier Joseph Crawford is found dead in the study of his home in West Sedgwick the only clue is the ladies gold evening bag on his desk. But does the bag indicate an unknown late night lady visitor as the murderer? Or does it point to his niece, Florence Lloyd, who Crawford had threatened to disinherit, or to his secretary, Gregory Hall, whose engagement to his niece was the cause of the disinheritance. With a paucity of clues, the case seems impossible of solution, impossible, that is, until that famous detective, Fleming Stone, arrives on the scene to reveal the murderer with one brilliant deduction.