A sophisticated 1930s Greenwich Village couple finds an inconvenient body in their upstairs bathtub in the first installment of an "excellent series" (The New Yorker).

Jerry and Pamela North's upstairs apartment has been empty as long as they can remember. It's an ordinary Greenwich Village abode, and the Norths are ordinary Villagers--which means they can't bear to go more than a few days between cocktail parties. So when Pamela decides to stage a soiree in the empty apartment, Jerry goes along begrudgingly. But what seems inconvenient becomes felonious the moment...