For Detective Inspector Ernest Heath, the picturesque village of Gelsby had seemed to be the ideal place for Rita Goodwin, his childhood sweetheart, to recover from a mental breakdown. Heath's dreams of a peaceful retirement are shattered, however, when a young woman is found strangled in the nearby ancient churchyard of St. Anne's. Now he's not so sure about his retirement spot, especially when two more victims are found. Ernest finds himself torn between sheltering Rita and calling his investigative skills out of retirement. Urged on by Detective Lisa Pharies, a former police colleague, they slowly uncover the secrets of the village where the large thirteenth-century church seems to dominate not only the landscape but the villagers themselves. When young curate Robin Ashton arrives to assist the rector, he is caught up in the mystery as well-a mystery in which all of the clues seem to lead back to the church and the faded Latin text written on the vestry wall seven hundred years ago, its message still reaching out to the unfaithful.