While out power-walking, Agatha Raisin hears a cry for help. Rushing over to the middle of the green, she finds an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Swinburn, with the body of an elderly gardener lying at their feet. Known as "the Admiral," the dead man had a penchant for booze, and this time his rum was spiked with weedkiller. Local gossip points to the Swinburns themselves as the killers, and so they turn to Agatha to clear their name. Taking the case—her 32nd, after Hot to Trot—Agatha is run off the road, narrowly escaping with her life, and soon she has another murder to solve.