When an arrogant aristocratic family's decision to develop a memorial garden into a commercial tea shop has the villagers up in arms, murders past and present rear their heads.
Barnaby and Troy are drawn to Newton Magna where their search for a horse whisperer allegedly struck by a car is complicated by the discovery of a body in the town well.
The near decapitation of the local postman, whose hyperactive libido also makes him the village lothario, leads to a series of grisly murders involving other promiscuous villagers.
When the body of a local beauty is discovered by the pool at her manor house, Barnaby and Troy uncover a seedy world of adultery and deceit within the affluent rural community.