In November 1919 a woman is found dead. Police assume she fell from the back porch of a three-decker in East Boston. At the funeral home, they discover she was shot. Medical examiner Magrath is furious at newly hired police detective Peter Attwood for the mistake. Since the police strike in September, experienced Irish detectives like McNally have been blackballed and inexperienced men like the Harvard student have been hired. Frances Glessner Lee is determined to help both Magrath and young Peter who is grandson to her widowed friend. Lives of Boston Brahmins and Irish clash as they hunt for the truth.

This is the second in a series of fictional stories roughly based on the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Over twenty miniature crime scenes were used from the 1940s to the present to train police detectives. Set in the 1920s, these stories imagine Frances Glessner Lee working with Dr. George Magrath to learn about "legal medicine" as forensic science was known at the time. Working with Magrath provided the foundation for the miniatures for which Frances Glessner Lee has become known as the "Mother of Forensic Science."