Hamish Macbeth suspects that Mrs. Gentle, an elderly matron, is not quite the kindhearted favorite her neighbors think her, and so he investigates the local inspector's suspicions when she dies under mysterious circumstances.
Spending a night at the reputedly haunted Castle Drim, Hamish Macbeth and his partner, Charlie Carter, discover a dead body and a smuggler's drop and become determined to unravel the strange mystery before more bodies turn up.
Jealously investigating an ex's intended, Agatha Raisin crashes the wedding only to become implicated in the bride's murder, a situation that immerses Agatha in the cutthroat equestrian world.