When a local lord gives a parish church to the college, Matthew Bartholomew joins the deputation of Cambridge scholars, priests, and students making its way to the village of Grundisburgh in Suffolk. But in this fifth historical mystery (after A Deadly Brew) starring the medical instructor of Michaelhouse College, the lord is rushing to legalize the transfer, and Bartholomew senses that Suffolk is not the tranquil retreat that he had been led to believe—a suspicion made fact when the Michaelhouse student-priest who was to live in the church is found murdered.