Inspector Linley, aka the eighth Earl of Asherton, brings his fiancée Deborah to the family estate to introduce her to the family. However, the family idyll does not work out. The brutal murder of a local journalist becomes the catalyst for terrible events that shake the peace of a picturesque Cornish village. Linley cannot participate in the investigation himself, since all evidence points to the killer being someone close to him. His friend, forensic expert Simon Alcourt St. James, comes to his aid.