Two widows have already been murdered when Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte (as Mr. Knapp, psychiatrist) comes to Broome. The murders seem to be without reason and apparently without clues. In his patient, meticulous manner, Bony collects infinitesimal facts and begins to build a picture of the murderer, but he becomes increasingly disturbed as the moon grows old and he feels that there might be another murder. A third murder is committed, but Bony has acquired enough facts to lay a trap for the murderer, avert the fourth crime, and expose the killer.
More than three decades have passed since the events described in John Updike’s The Witches of Eastwick. The three divorcees–Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie–have left town, remarried, and become widows. They cope with their grief and solitude as widows do: they travel the world, to such foreign lands as Canada, Egypt, and China, and renew old acquaintance.