Jeremy Jenkins, a solicitor at Rochester, Clark, Hughes, is established as a man who keeps strict office hours and avoids letting work intrude on his personal time. Even so, late in the day he is given a file connected to Holly Lewis, and the unusual contents catch his attention.

The file contains two sealed envelopes, one marked to be opened in the event of Holly Lewis's death and the other in the event of Nick Silver's death. Jeremy learns that Kent Hospital has informed the firm that Holly has died, because Holly listed the firm as her next of kin in an emergency.

Because Holly is dead, Jeremy's immediate responsibility is to locate Nick Silver and tell him that the firm is holding a package addressed to him. The file is strikingly sparse: beyond the envelopes, it contains only three phone numbers and no meaningful correspondence except the original storage request. That lack of context makes Jeremy curious about what Holly and Nick had arranged.

Jeremy's secretary has already tried Nick Silver's number without success, and Jeremy supervises another attempt with the same result. Concluding that Nick may simply be unavailable during working hours, Jeremy decides to try once more just before nine that evening. If Nick still does not answer, Jeremy plans to call the third number in the file the following day, opening a possible new line in the investigation around Holly and Nick.