Harold Merefield returns to his disreputable digs after a night of frittering away his inheritance drinking at the Naxos Club, only to find a corpse in his bed. The man is a stranger to him, and the inquest brings in a verdict of death from natural causes, but Harold knows that no one really believes that. So he turns to Dr Lancelot Priestley, a mathematician with an interest in criminology. Harold's behaviour caused an estrangement with Dr Priestley, and more importantly with his young…