Libraries are supposed to be quiet places for study and contemplation, particularly libraries such as the one at Kingsley, a small, Midwestern liberal arts college. It was only natural then that when the body of one of the professors is discovered amongst the stacks of the library it caused a certain amount of disturbance to the routine of the college. But when Dr. Allen, a professor of English, starts to suspect that the death was anything but accidental, it throws the institution into turmoil. Asked by the college president to quietly investigate the crime, Allen uncovers more than one secret amongst the groves of academe as he tries to solve the Murder in the Stacks.