London lawyer Owen Lockhart inherited a distant uncle's grand but run-down Cornish coastal estate and moves in with the intent to sell it. Senior constable Maxwell Breckett's wife Adele, his late uncle's secretary, hopes to change Owen's mind by rallying local clients and hiring as cook foxy local agricultural engineer Holly Heston, fatherless boarding school pupil Toby's single mother. She's in love with constable Lucas Corbin, the only one into whom she confided a grim family secret, but he finds out about her fast-budding affair with Owen.

An elderly gentleman lies dead in bed. For the employees of the Cologne funeral home, this is nothing unusual. Apparently, Mr. Dressler died of tuberculosis. But then bloodstains are found on the headrest, and one of the undertakers discovers a bullet. So it was no ordinary death after all!