When animal rights campaigners free some dogs from a labratory, but fail to realise that one of the animlas is dangerously ill, a children's birthday party becomes a terrible nightmare for Maggie Forbes.

Her name is Cecily. She's sophisticated well-liked - and dangerous, as DI Maggie Forbes will soon find out when she makes enquiries at Cecily's elegant flat, a place which conceals a grim secret.

A minor civil servant is found dead in exotic circumstances, and Maggie tries to protect his widow from publicity.