The eighth installment in this cozy mystery series features Daisy Dalrymple at the Museum of Natural History, a place of fascination - and murder.

In the summer of 1923, the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple makes what should be an uneventful research trip to the Museum of Natural History quite an eventful day - with her nephew, Derek, and her soon-to-be stepdaughter, Belinda, in tow. But as she interviews the various curators for her article on the museums of London, she soon discovers that the Museum of Natural History is a hothouse of professional rivalry and jealousy. Much resentment exists, particularly between Dr. Smith Woodward, the keeper of geology, responsible for the fossil collection, and Dr. Pettigrew, the keeper of mineralogy, responsible for the museum's fabulous gem collection.

On a later trip, as closing time nears, Daisy hears two voices followed by a tremendous crash and rushes into the next hall to discover Dr. Pettigrew dead - murdered amid a pile of dinosaur bones.

Daisy's fiancé, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, is assigned to investigate, and together they must unravel a most baffling case of missing gems, dispossessed European royalty, professional rivalry, and a murder most foul.