Two years after the trial for the murder of her lover, the blaze of publicity surrounding mystery writer Harriet Vane has begun to die away and Harriet decides it's time for a break. But the peace of a North Devon walking tour is rudely shattered when she discovers the body of a man on the beach, his throat slit from ear to ear. The moment the story breaks, Harriet's old friend Lord Peter Wimsey is on the scene to lend his powers of detection. Can the two of them discover who the murderer is?