Before the last echo of the shot had trailed down Riverside.drive, Ellery Queen realized that he had just witnessed a murder. Robert Potts lay shot through the head and not only had Ellery Queen been a witness, but also inspector Queen and Sergeant Velie. Yet not one of them knew who committed the murder.

This is the story of the Old Woman (Cornelia Potts), who lived with all her children (six) in the incredible Potts "palace" on Riverside Drive - on its front lawn a great, bronze Oxford complete with trailing bronze shoelaces. Over the household hovers a ruthless killer who fits his cold-blooded crimes into the pattern of a Mother Goose rhyme. Here is murder - with amusing and queer characters galore - as weird and baffling as Ellery Queen has yet encountered.