In the five years of its existence Hope House, a Home for Working Girls, had met and vanquished one emergency — a fire in a wastepaper basket. Then Ruth Miller moved in and was found, only a short while later, a limp and broken body in the courtyard. Monica Brady, the Head, and her assistant, Miss Angeline Small, met at midnight over hot chocolate and small cakes to decide what to do. The official verdict was "fell or jumped," and Ruth was a mousy girl with no friends to ask uncomfortable questions. They came to the conclusion that the scandal would shortly die down. But it turned out that Ruth did have a friend, whom no one — certainly not her murderer — had bargained for, and she was determined to see justice done.