Parker Pyne receives an original problem from his latest customer: Mrs. Abner Rymer is the widow of a man who worked out a new engineering process which made him a rich man. She was a farmgirl who was courted by Rymer and married him when they had no money and lived through years of gruelling poverty. When he first struck his riches the two people at first enjoyed their new life of luxury but the novelty of servants, foreign trips, expensive clothes and food soon wore off. Abner Rymer was a weak man physically but his new-found wealth couldn't reverse his deterioration and he died at the relatively young age of forty-three some five years ago. Mrs Rymer has no friends now; her old friends are shy of her new lifestyle and her newer acquaintances are always after subscriptions and, she feels sure, are snobbish about her behind her back. She basically wants help in spending money in an enjoyable way but without giving it away. Pyne promises to restore her interest in life and charges her one thousand pounds up-front for his service. After she has gone, Pyne tells Claude Luttrell that the services of Dr. Antrobus will be needed...