The Manciples have always been known to their neighbors as the most eccentric family in the charming village of Cregwall. But nothing has ever started the local tongues wagging so much as when the body of Raymond Mason, who recently has taken a mysterious interest in buying the Manciple estate, is found lying in the Manciple driveway with a bullet hole in his forehead. The local authorities quickly call in Chief Inspector Henry Tibbett, who, almost in spite of himself, finds that he is charmed by the Manciples, who apparently will go to any extreme — even murder — to save their ancestral home.