International cellist Sara Selkirk is apprehensive about the charity concert in Bath's famous Pump Room. It's the first time she will have performed in public since the death of her lover the previous year. But, in the event, Sara's performance is overshadowed by the death of the concert's organiser, Matthew Sawyer. In the ensuing police investigation, many secrets are uncovered including a stolen needlework collection, an immigration racket, a headmaster's adulterous affair with his secretary. What, if anything, do any of them have to do with Sawyer's death?