The duo are hired to investigate why newly planted roses at an upmarket preparatory school keep dying. After witnessing the arcane ritual of the Night of the Stag, they detect tensions between modernising headmaster Quentin Marshall and established members of his staff who are harbouring secrets someone is prepared to kill for.

Laura and Rosemary are hired to create a restaurant garden on Italy's Ligurian coast, but it is not long before their working holiday is disrupted by a murder. Determined to solve the crime before returning home, they find themselves with no shortage of suspects - and matters are complicated further by a second death.