 While driving home from a party in the village of Newton Magna, Dr. Bullard accidentally hits someone with his car. He goes to a nearby pub for assistance, but when they return to the scene of the accident, there s no one to be found. The pub owner seeks Tom Barnaby s assistance but all he and Sgt. Troy can find is a bloody handkerchief by the side of the road. Barnaby does meet up with Melvyn Stockard, now a buyer and seller of horses, but who was once convicted of robbery. They know that the person struck by the car was a recently arrived Irishman who claimed to be a horse whisperer. When a body is found in the village well, the police uncover a complex web of marital infidelities and deceit. When another villager is found murdered, Barnaby finds that the horse whisperers appearance in the village some weeks before may been for a very specific purpose.