As Dr. Fenimore takes a stroll in Philadelphia's "Society Hill", he observes a teenager trying to bury a sack. When a guard chases the youth out of the park, Fenimore gets involved. "What's in the sack?" he asks.
"My cat", the youth says unhappily. "A car got him".
Fenimore leads the teenager to a burial ground set aside years ago by William Penn for the use of the Lenni Lenape Indians. But, while preparing the grave for the cat, the doctor discovers that the space is already occupied...by a young woman who has not been buried long, or in the usual way. She is sitting upright, facing East.
Investigating this mystery, Fenimore travels from rural South Jersey to the affluent Main Line suburbs and acquires the help of a cast of eccentric friends -- the teenager, an outspoken nurse, a cooperative policeman, an erudite bookseller and his blase cat Sal. In the end, however, it is the doctor's medical knowledge that provides the unique solution.
