During a photo shoot, a human ear and frozen corpse remains are discovering. Inside the remains some gold and a fragment of a meteor are found. This supposed to be kept in Washington’s space research center, lead by Landis Collar, the boss of the victim, physicist Diane Sidman.
Suspects list includes her graduate students, Milton Alvaredo and Jennifer Keating, plus Diane's lovers, including direct superior and successor as research periodical editor, Dr. Christopher Beaudette. Diane's corpse shows a confusing history before and after her mysterious death.