Agatha Raisin's private detective agency is working flat out on a series of burglaries which take a violent turn when a friend of Agatha's is murdered during a raid on his antiques shop. Though determined to nail the villains Agatha still makes time to help Sir Charles Fraith prepare to stage a glamorous event at his ancestral home Barfield House. When Agatha begins to receive death threats and narrowly avoids being abducted by kidnappers she takes advantage of a previously arranged trip to Majorca to lie low for a while. There she meets her partner former police officer John Glass. Their relationship flounders over John's apparent closeness to his stage dance partner Louise. Everything comes to a climax at the Barfield Extravaganza. . . Can Agatha track down the would-be killer nail her friend's murderers and rescue her romance with John?

Part of the Agatha Raisin series.