"It was a typical Dickens' Christmas -- deep snow everywhere -- and down in the little village of Sittaford on the fringe of Dartmoor, the snow was the deepest of all. Mrs. Willett, the winter tenant in Captain Trevelyan's country house, had given a party and the guests were now snowbound. They decided to do a little table-turning, and suddenly the table announced that Captain Trevelyan was dead. His oldest friend, Major Burnaby, was disturbed, and quickly left the house and tramped through the snowy terrain for six miles to Exhampton. There was no sign of life in Trevelyan's house, through the back window was broken and the light was burning. There, on the floor, lay the body of Trevelyn. James Pearson was arrested, having been the Exhampton to try to get a loan from Captain Trevelyan at the time of the murder. But James Pearson's fiancée, the intrepid Emily Trefusis, is convinced he couldn't have committed the murder, so it's up to her to solve the puzzle and save James" --Cover, p. 4.