Following the untimely death of her mother, Ursula Swynford, Ruth Harvey has taken over the manor in Frog End, where she runs a successful plant-selling business and provides gardening therapy for an increasing number of her husband Dr Tom Harvey's troubled patients: embittered Lawrence Deacon, lonely Joyce Reed, widowed Tanya Carberry and wheelchair-bound Johnny Turner, the young victim of a horrific motorbike crash.

Gardening at the manor quickly becomes a much-needed lifeline for the group, and all seems to be going well - until the major stumbles across a body among the tomato plants in one of the greenhouses. Once again, the manor is the scene of a brutal murder - and, once again, the Colonel reluctantly finds himself drawn into solving the mystery.