DCI John Barnaby arrives in Midsomer and is bemused by the quaint villages and their quirky residents. But when a local DJ is killed by the hand crank of a vintage automobile at a traditional girls' boarding school, he soon discovers that murder and deception are never far away.

When a young woman is dressed like a bride and drowned in a bath, it triggers a spate of ghoulish wedding-themed murders in Great Worthy. The case takes DCI Barnaby and DS Jones to a donkey sanctuary, a heritage steam railway, and a pub run by an ex-copper and a former brothel madam. With a serial killer still at large, could history be repeating itself?