The coroner's jury found that the boy hanged in the school gymnasium had
killed himself, but Sergeant Beef disagrees. He takes a job as a
temporary school caretaker, abetted by the reluctant Townsend, Beef's
biographer, whose brother is a master at the school. Beef's methods
entail endless games of darts and beer all around in the local pub, much
to Townsend's dismay of course. But when another remarkably similar
murder occurs elsewhere, Beef bestirs himself to uncover the guilty.