On a trip to the mainland, Charlie Chan of the Honolulu Police makes his way North to the High Sierras in Lake tahoe. He comes at the invitation of the wealthy Dudley ward, first husband of the famous and temperamental opera star Ellen langini. Chan has been asked to help Ward find the whereabouts of his lost son, given up her adoption 18 years earlier by Madame ledini. But when the diva arrives and as quickly dispatched by a gunshot, the question becomes who killed her? The party at the secluda estate includes, among others, landini's three ex-husbands in their present husband. Then there is Hugh benton, scheduled to be husband number five, and her his sister leslie, who may secret of the fact that she hated the singer. There is ireland, who is once been landini's lover, and cecilia, his jealous wife. Shrewdly, courteously, relentlessly, Charlie chain asked the questions and moves, inch by inch, towards the startling truth behind a murder with too many suspects and not enough clues.