After a quarrel with her husband at the Midsomer Mallow residents association's Spanish Evening, Julia Thompson walks home, but never arrives. She is found the next morning in Chaney's Field, having been stabbed to death. Barnaby investigates with his new Detective Sergeant, Dan Scott, in tow. An early suspect is the village odd job man, Jacob Stoat. Cully Barnaby meanwhile organizes a get-together with some old school friends, one of whom is the dead woman's neighbor. She finds that her friends have changed and that they now have little in common. A second murder during the village's open garden day leads the police to a secret shared by Cully's friends and the identity of the murderer.