Professor Margaret Spence Eliot is behind in the work she needs to finish before she begins her new position as the Weingarten Fellow at Merrion College, Oxford. With the new term starting in just a few days, she has shut herself in her rooms so she can prepare without distractions.However, before she can catch up, she discovers the body of a visiting professor in Oxford's Botanical Garden. A few hours later, a member of Merrion's staff is found murdered...