When a young Englishman on work experience in Australia is found dead at the lovely Pool of Siloam in the Blue Mountains during a school tour, there are too many suspects to count. Detective Sergeant Provis calls in her old colleague, Inspector Esson, and he takes the lead on the investigation. The deceased, Roger Xanthius, was viewed as great fun by some of the students, but no one quite trusted him, particularly one of his own former teachers, on exchange at the Australian school for the year. As Esson and Provis dig deeper, Roger's own dark tendencies come to light.

Was the young man's death an accident? Or was it the result of malice? No one is certain, but it becomes clear that altogether too many people wanted Roger out of the way.