New Year's Eve, 1940, is unusual for the Paradine family.Departing from tradition, James Paradine makes a speech that changes the course of many lives.Valuable documents have disappeared. A member of the family has taken them. The culprit has until midnight to confess and return the papers. A few minutes after twelve James Paradine is dead.It is left to Miss Silver to disentangle the threads that bind the Paradine family in a strange web of dislike, hatred and fear.