 While investigating the demise of a row of avenue trees at the estate of a former horticulture student, Rosemary gets involved in the death by car-accident of the man s partner. While staying at an inn, she offers a lift to Laura, a friend of the dead man. Laura is newly on her own thanks to her husband running off with a younger woman. And when Rosemary is notified that her job at the university has been eliminated, she, too, finds herself with no commitments. Laura is an ex-police officer and thinks someone at the estate may have a shady past, and it might be connected to the death, as well as the serious skin ailment afflicting Rosemary s friend.