Three years after her scandalous husband was reported dead, Adelaide Fiske is at the altar again, marrying a captain on the Marquis of Wellington's staff, in this 11th Jane Austen mystery (following Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron). The future at last seems bright for Adelaide, until Jane discovers a corpse on the ancient Pilgrim's Way that runs through her brother Edward's Canterbury estate. As First Magistrate, Edward is obliged to investigate, and he and Jane discover that the body belongs to Adelaide's supposedly late first husband—only this time being genuinely and profoundly dead. Then to everyone's horror, a second corpse appears beside the Pilgrim's Way.