Set in 1938 in London and Vienna, a tense and atmospheric thriller told against a backdrop of uncertainty and fear as World War Two threatens. As war looms over Britain and there is talk of gas masks and blackout, people are understandably jumpy and anxious.

Stella Fry, who's been working in Vienna for a Jewish family, returns home with no job and a broken heart. She answers an advertisement from a famous mystery writer, Hubert Newman, who needs a manuscript typed. She takes on the job and is shocked the next day to learn of the writer's sudden, unexplained death.

She is even more surprised when, twenty-four hours later, she receives Newman's manuscript and reads the Dedication: To Stella, spotter of mistakes. Harry Fox, formerly of Special Branch and brilliant at surveillance, has been suspended for some undisclosed misdemeanor. He has his own reasons for being interested in Hubert Newman.

He approaches Stella Fry to share his belief that the writer's death was no accident. What's more, since she was the last person to see Newman, she could be in danger herself.