When Orville Tudway arrives in the village of Martyr Warren and is swiftly joined by his old arch enemy the Smith clan, the two groups of travellers quickly threaten to shatter the serene peace of the village. Although Barnaby and Troy are initially called to the local manor house to investigate the disappearance of a goose, events take a more macabre turn when the local magistrate owner and antagoniser of the travellers is found dead at his opulent home.

Fletcher's Cross is preparing itself for the annual cricket match against neighbouring village Midsomer Worthy, when tragedy strikes and Tara Cavendish the wife of a wealthy local landowner is found bludgeoned to death with a cricket bat. Barnaby and Troy are soon enmeshed in a succession of calculating murders, and nobody is above suspicion.

Spurred into action by the discovery of a woman's body in Midsomer Worthy's Raven's Wood, Barnaby and Troy re-examine three similar unsolved murders in the same village, hoping to get a lead before the killer strikes again. As they dig deeper into the clandestine world of the community, they find themselves embroiled in a sinister web of deceit, violence, and mystery.

Plans by Barnaby to renew his wedding vows in Badger's Drift, are quickly put on hold when the body of a local property developer is found decapitated in his own home. The detective is left mystified as to why anyone would kill a man who only had weeks to live, after being recently diagnosed with a brain tumour. As he and Troy attempt to find out, they soon encounter a hotbed of local corruption and property feuding within the village as the body count rises and the mystery deepens.