Having fallen hopelessly in love with local gardener George Marston, a shameless Agatha Raisin donates the money for a charity ball in the hope of dancing with him, only to discover that he has been murdered by a killer who caused him to be bitten by a poisonous snake.

Living in the wealthy gated village of Weycombe with her titled English husband is a fantasy come true for American Jillian White. But the murder of a local estate agent mars the pretty surface of her life and home. Worried about a killer on the loose, Jill tries to piece together clues hidden in the many versions of truth she hears from her suspicious neighbors. But as she plunges deep into the investigation, her own suspicions grow into a warped...