When Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, returns from Scotland restless and out of sorts, her friend Emily Dunnington plans a select dinner party with half a dozen male guests from whom Julia may choose a lover. But Emily's dinner ends in disaster when one of her guests, Sir Reginald Montague, is shot dead. When Bow Street Runner John Pickett is summoned to Emily's house, he is faced with the awkward task of informing Lady Fieldhurst that their recent masquerade...