THE DUCK POINT YACHT CLUB, located on a peninsula on the New England coast, has welcomed invitees for over one hundred fifty years. When the charred relic of the club’s dory appears on the river and a naked wooden leg peeps out from under the stern thwart, two men suffering from professional loneliness are suddenly thrust into the midst of a murder mystery. Paul Leach is a retired orthopedic surgeon who, with the help of a down-and-out police detective, becomes a self-appointed murder investigator. Eva Gitane, a seductive young beauty, has mysteriously vanished; when her body part turns up abruptly, Leach becomes frustrated by a confusing trail of gruesome clues. Unable to pinpoint any one of three males who once rivaled for Eva’s attention as her killer, Leach focuses on locating her body, wherever it might lie—underground or underwater. As body pieces continue to emerge along the seashore, the doctor studies them in secret, applying knowledge gathered in his medical career and bone-collecting hobby. But as Leach arrives at a startling discovery only he could have fathomed, he realizes that Eva may have been not only enchanting, but also smart enough to catch her own killer.