For centuries, a village in Yorkshire, England, has been in a Sleeping Beauty slumber—until a brutal murder tears apart the cobwebs for all its residents. The village vicar, Father Hart, makes a horrifying discovery: William Theys, one of his most loyal parishioners and a highly respected community member, lies beheaded in his barn. Next to him cowers his slightly mentally challenged nineteen-year-old daughter, who says, "I did it." Then she falls silent. It's a case for Scotland Yard, which sends a highly mismatched team to solve the crime: Inspector Thomas Lynley, attractive, worldly, and gallant, and his colleague Barbara Havers, an ugly duckling who feels even more clumsy and awkward next to the charming Lynley. In nerve-wracking detail, the two unravel a dark web that conceals the abysses behind a respectable facade of propriety, exposing a gruesome truth that has destroyed more than one life.