While English professor Loretta Lawson is attending a conference in Paris, she stays the night in the flat of a friend's acquaintance. She discovers a sleeping man in one of the bedrooms, and the next morning finds the man gone, but the bed soaked with blood. Returning to Cambridge, she begins to suspect her friend's acquaintance, and others on the staff of the college, are involved with the missing (murdered?) man, and decides to investigate for herself.

对20年来从未堕入情网的圣西蒙勋爵来说，这是个激动人心的时刻；
来自加利福尼亚的身家百万的美艳新娘、数额巨大在嫁妆、简约而隆重的婚礼……一切都显得如此新奇、美好和幸福。
唯一令人遗憾的是，婚礼刚刚结束，新娘就彻底失踪了……