The tale is set principally among the hills of the English Lakes by the fictional lake of Timemere. The imaginary village of Thatchcroft on its shore and the equally fictional market town of Constanton a few miles downriver from the Lake. A former sea farer, Will, now owns Grilsethwaite, an estate on the lakeside.
Will is summoned from the church one Sunday morning to deal with an incident of deer poaching. The first of several criminal acts to disturb to countryside they were to gradually increase through theft and violence to murder.
That first Sunday afternoon Will calls at the...