When the head of a local book club is robbed and battered to death with her walking stick, suspicion soon falls on the members of her reading club. When the club is exposed as a front for a lucrative investment portfolio, many believe that money and riches were the motive behind the brutal attack. The investigation becomes increasingly urgent as more members of the club meet a lethal fate. As the hidden-secrets and mysterious pasts of these women are uncovered, Barnaby finds that for one murder unrequited love is a stronger motive than money.