To Oxford professor Maggie Eliot, it seems everyone she knows is pregnant. The women in her husband's family. The daughters of her friends. Her colleagues and her colleagues' wives. Too old to have children herself, Maggie finds the situation raises issues she thought had long since been resolved. Then two murders occur at her Oxford college and neither victim is a likely homicide candidate. Does someone have a grudge against the school? A fellow professor is arrested and he begs Maggie to help prove he is innocent. Although she despises the man, Maggie reluctantly agrees to investigate.

Together with a feisty private detective, she discovers many things that confirm her opinion of her colleague, but no evidence that indicates his guilt. At the same time, Maggie has her own problems. She is being stalked, her books burned and her home in Oxford vandalized. Could these events have any connection to the murders? Maggie is determined to find out.