On New Year's Eve, 1940, James Paradine makes a speech to his family. Valuable documents have disappeared and the culprit has until midnight to confess. A few minutes after twelve James is dead and it is up to retired governess turned private detective Miss Silver to solve the mystery.
Michael Harsch's long years of work were nearly at an end. The following day he was looking forward to handing over his precious formula to the government. But the next morning he was in no fit state to hand over the formula - he was dead. It looked like suicide, but Miss Silver knew it was murder.
At Larwood House, a school for witch-orphans, witchcraft is utterly forbidden. So when a note is found declaring that someone in class 2Y is a witch the rumour-mill goes into overdrive. So, when the son of history teacher Mr. Wentworth disappears and a note is found signed by the mysterious Witch of 2Y, the dreaded Inquistors are called to investigate.
When Lila Dryden is discovered standing over the dead body of her irritating fiance with a dagger in her hand, Miss Silver is called in to investigate.
