The flow of Max Tudor's sermon on Bathsheba is interrupted when the lady of the local manor house is found in a suicide pact with her young lover. And, when a young girl goes missing, and a crime writer becomes a target, DCI Cotton asks Max to lend his MI5 expertise to the investigation. Many suspects emerge as the scope of the investigation widens, and Max begins to wonder: was the attack on the writer only part of a broader conspiracy?