Jill Hartley has to take important papers to 18 Hayford Avenue, Berrydale, the home of her firm's client, Professor Locksley. But when she arrives at the neglected house she finds the front door open - the inside of the house, dark, damp and decaying. And huddled at the foot of the stairs lies a dead man, in a pool of blood, his head battered to a pulp. At Berrydale Police Station Superintendent Budd investigates this horrifying and mysterious case.