The villagers of Bishop's Lacey are holding their collective breath as St Tancred's tomb in the local church is about to be opened after five hundred years. Inveterate eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce is first at the scene, but the body she finds lying there is not that of a desiccated saint; it is Mr Collicutt, St Tancred's celebrated organist.

Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, Flavia soon finds herself investigating one of Bishop's Lacey's most peculiar families.