"We've got to get under cover," Ellery Queen insisted. "The house is burning now.... The cellar -- where's the cellar? Lord, what unmitigated idiots! Talk, will you, somebody?"

"The cellar," they chanted obediently, fixing glassy eyes on his face.

"Behind the stairs," rasped Mrs. Xavier. Her gown was torn away from one shoulder. "Oh, hurry, hurry." She sped down the hall.

Ellery Queen, his father and an odd group of people were trapped in a mountaintop house. A raging forest fire surrounded them. Two of their number had already perished ... by murder. And the murderer was still in their midst!