The highly unpopular Principal of Storbury College, is murdered early in the morning in her office. Ariadne Hopwood, the highly unpopular Principal of Storbury College, is murdered early in the morning in her office. The police quickly conclude that the murder has to be an inside job committed by one of the senior managers, but they are baffled by the extraordinary circumstances of her death. Their prime suspect is Mort Todd, the Head of Humanities, largely because he was senior to Ariadne twenty years ago when she was a young, aspiring lecturer at the College and the not insignificant matter of an incriminating entry in her diary for first thing on the day she was murdered. Running alongside the police investigation is mild-mannered, insecure Morts chequered backstory, and the oddball characters who work at the College, many of whom might also be suspected of the crime. As the police finally make an arrest, another disconcerting murder is taking place