Amateur sleuth Agatha Raisin is going through a man-hating phase after being left by her husband, is bored with tottering around Carsley, and wishes men would just sod off, so she is unmoved by news of a captivating new curate. But when she meets the golden-haired, blue-eyed Tristan Delon, she is swept off her feet-along with every other female in the village. She is positively ecstatic when he invites her to dine with him, but the next day Agatha is left with a hangover from hell-and the curate is found dead. Carsley is whisked from time-warp monotony to a hotbed of murder and intrigue, and Agatha Raisin is back on track. As the corpses multiply, ever-obstinate Agatha trails clues from Lilac Lane to London, unmindful that someone wicked is arranging that Mrs. Raisin's cats never again hear their mistress' footfall on the path.