In a Bath auction house, a large slab of carved stone is up for sale when there?s a hold-up attempt by three masked robbers. They kill the highest bidder, a professor who has recognized the figure carved in the stone as Chaucer?s Wife of Bath, and then flee, leaving the stone behind. Peter Diamond is assigned to investigate, and the stone is moved into his office ? causing such difficulties that he starts to think the carving has jinxed him.,
