One wet Monday afternoon a body is found in a closed tank of liquid clay at Shentall's long-established pottery. Present at the irruption of this alien violence is Nicholson, a freelance detective engaged by Luke Shentall to investigate the leakage of new designs to foreign imitators. Nicholson reviews what has passed, from his arrival to the gathering tension of the hours before the crime, knowing that no scrap of behaviour may be dismissed as irrelevant. He gradually succumbs to the spirit of Shentall's, to the unique atmosphere of the blackened Midlands city, and to his feeling for the chief suspect, Corinna Wakefield, the firm's designer. In the investigation which follows Nicholson is driven, with a bitterly divided mind, to reveal what he knows will bring unhappiness to all involved.
