 Melissa Townsend is young, rich, attractive and has a superior attitude that is most off-putting. She is generally disliked by almost everyone in the village and Barnaby is called when she starts to receive threatening letters. Soon after a break in at the local vets, Melissa is found dead, having been injected with a deadly substance. Among the suspects are Melissa s friend Sally, the vet and several other villagers. The police s biggest problem is that they start to run out of suspects as, one by one, they too are murdered. In the end, the solution revolves around blackmail and someone s desire for social acceptability.