Barnaby attends the funeral of the owner of the Easterly Grange Hotel and hears that the hotel manager has gone missing. The will is read, and it seems the hotel has been divided between the missing manager and his beautiful wife, the hotel's chef and its accountant.A dog finds the hotel manager's severed hand, and the others named in the will receive threatening notes. Then accidents start to happen to them all, including mushroom-poisoning, an apparently accidental shooting, a falling drinks cabinet and a sabotaged vehicle. Barnaby next learns that the missing hotel manager had in his possession a more recent will, which is also now missing....

A wealthy young landlady fears for her life after she callously ignores the plight of an elderly tenant.

Accusations of unsportsmanlike conduct on the river are bedevilling the Midsomer game fishermen, and Barnaby has to interview elegant widow Isobel Hewitt, a spendthrift, fast-living, Jaguar-driving 75-year-old, when another lady fly-fisher accuses her of a violent assault. Then first Isobel and later her fellow villager Dr Duncan Goff are found on the river-bank with their skulls smashed in, and there is no shortage of suspects - including an antique dealer who apparently specializes in befriending elderly widows. The picture is confused when one of the suspects, chef-restaurateur Keith Scholey, is found frozen to death in his walk-in deep freeze, with the lock of the door jammed by a nail. Troy has a theory that Scholey was the killer and has made his suicide look like murder, but will that be the end of the affair?

An elderly woman is found dead in her cottage and DCI Tom Barnaby is convinced the death is not down to natural causes.

When local solicitor Nick Turner falls to his death from his house roof, it is not clear whether it was murder or suicide.

Annie Woodrow, a charity worker from Midsomer Malham, is standing trial for killing her best friend, Frances Trevelyan, in a case that Barnaby had investigated ten months previously. But he becomes increasingly unsettled that the prosecution's case doesn't match the facts. Barnaby & Jones enlist the help of key witness Mrs Beverly in a risky entrapment to find out what really happened. Jones's promotion to Det Sgt comes through at the same time.

Faith Alexander arrives in Midsomer Deverell to visit her estranged Uncle Rex, much to the surprise of his friends and associates who had been told she was dead. The problem is Rex is missing and Barnaby's initial investigation into his disappearance becomes more sinister when Rex's body is found at the bottom of the weir. The case becomes more complicated as it appears the eccentric Rex left several different wills and everyone wants a slice of his estate. Was this the reason for murder, or is it related to a family feud from 40 years ago? What was the secret of the feud? Those who know are not saying but someone is prepared to commit further murders to ensure it is not revealed.