A melodramatic mystery, in which a young lawyer is called to the house of a dying woman to draw up her will. While searching for her legal heirs, meets a beautiful woman with a mysterious scar. The lawyer soon finds that his search for the heirs leads to some very unusual occurrences. Events then take a very sinister turn... As ever, with Anna Katherine Green, this early novel features love-struck young men; high-minded ladies with a propensity to faint, and whose reticence is essential to the plot; plus detailed legal knowledge. This one also has a particularly melodramatic villain. Green's stories are full of mystery and written in an elegant manner, true to the time period in which the story is set.