Normally dead bodies in a graveyard are buried—but not this one. When a woman is found strangled in a North London cemetery with an old newspaper clipping clutched in her hand, Inspector Witherspoon is surprised to find that he and the victim have crossed paths before. Alice Robinson was a respectable widow who ran a quiet Islington lodging house. None of her lodgers have any apparent motive to murder their landlady. But nagging suspicions are lodging in the Inspector’s mind—only he knows that “Alice Robinson” is not her real name. Now he’ll need the help of Mrs. Jeffries to revisit an old case that has haunted him for years and to get the real story.

墓園裡的屍體通常都會埋葬起來，但有一具屍體卻沒有。一名婦人被人發現吊死在倫敦北區的一座焚化廠裡，手裡還抓著一張舊剪報。調查員威瑟斯朋 (Witherspoon) 赫然發現他見過這名被害人。艾麗絲．羅賓森 (Alice Robinson) 是一名受人景仰的寡婦，在幽靜的伊斯林頓經營一間民宿。入住房客全沒有任何明顯的殺人動機，但是威瑟斯朋認為內情並不單純，因為只有他知道，女房東的本名不是「艾麗絲．羅賓森」。他需要傑佛瑞絲女士的協助，重新調查這件盤旋在他心中已久的舊案，準備揭開事件的真實內幕。