Wes Beattie, the hapless young son of a stuffy Toronto family is on trial for murder, and his explanations of what actually happened are entirely too fanciful to convince anyone. But Sidney "Gargoyle" Grant, a disreputable young lawyer, is irritated by the rush to condemnation, and resolves to untangle the truth.

John Norman Harris was a Canadian writer, author of two novels featuring lawyer Sidney Grant. Harris fought in Royal Air Force in the second World War, was shot down piloting a bomber over Hamburg and was held as a POW in a German camp until the end of the war. He worked in advertising and public relations in Toronto until his sudden death in 1964.