When her parents die from fever, Lady Sarah Montgomery Baird Watson-Wentworth has to leave India, a land she was born and raised in, and travel to England for the first time. Finding it almost impossible to adjust to London society, Sarah flees to the county of Cheshire and the country estate of Grangeback that borders the village of Stickleback Hollow. A place filled with oddballs, eccentrics and more suspicious characters than you can shake a stick at, Sarah feels more at home in the sleepy little village than she ever did in the big city; however, even sleepy little villages have mysteries that must be solved.
With Brigadier George, Countess Szonja, the Chief Constable, Mr. Henry Cartwright and Miss Baker dealing with the crisis in the Far East, the Grangeback Estate has been left in the capable hands of Lady Sarah and Mr. Hunter. As autumn approaches, the berry picking season is upon Stickleback Hollow and people come from all over the country to pick berries in the woods around the village, Grangeback and Duffleton Hall. With all the new people flooding into the area, a replacement for Constable Evans deceased partner finally arrives to take up the spare room in the police house and give Constable Evans some help maintaining law and order.
But as the nights are growing longer and the temperatures are getting colder, there is something more than a chill in the air of Cheshire. People are found dead in the woods and the police can find no rhyme or reason for the murders. Can Lady Sarah, Mr. Hunter and Constable Evans find out who is responsible for the deaths before it is too late?