A prestigious golf club is the setting for murder when a player is bludgeoned to death on the 13th hole. Barnaby and Jones discover gambling, illegal money-lending, and assault are rife among the snobbish members, who are also dismissive of the local villagers and only allow them on the course for a few hours a week. Before long, another body turns up, making the detectives doubly determined to catch this terror of the fairways.

DCI Barnaby and DS Jones come face to face with MI6 when a number of murders near a government safe house in Midsomer Parva appear to be connected to a group of British spies stationed in East Berlin during the Cold War.