Fletcher's Cross undertaker Patrick Pennyman is found dead in his own chapel of rest with a shocked look on his face. Suspicion points at the local spiritualist church which is heavily controversial in the village. Barnaby and Scott try to uncover the mysteries of the church as well as trying to unmask the brutal killer. They have to interview the undertaker's former business partner who hated the man, a handyman with a mischievous personality and a womanizing pensioner. And when another murder is committed the village unleashes its full evil potential.