Jemima Flowerday

December 1922, and society dressmaker Jemima Flowerday receives a letter from Lady Hamlash of Merry Beggars Hall, requesting three new gowns for the Christmas season. Lady Hamlash does not travel, so Jemima will need to visit the Hall in deepest Suffolk to work in situ. The commission appeals to Jemima for more than one reason. It will bring her some much-needed income. More interestingly, the remote manor house was the scene of a grisly murder earlier that year, when Lady Hamlash, inspecting her plants in the walled garden, found a man's severed head beneath a terracotta asparagus cloche.

Mrs Cornelia van Doorn, a wealthy South African widow, has leased Castle Gloaming intending to launch herself and her stepdaughter, Honor, into British society. The castle stands in rugged Welsh countryside, overlooking the foaming River Dee. Its hills are haunted by tales of mythic creatures, including the ghost-dog, Gelert. Its most recent owner, the eighth Earl of Barhaven, has died and Castle Gloaming needs money, which Mrs van Doorn appears to have in abundance.