When a prize-winning author is murdered on the eve of a literary festival, Barnaby and Scott discover a hotbed of corruption, scandal and financial mismanagement in the community of Midsomer St Michael. Before they can discover who is telling the truth, the death toll begins to rise.
The Doctor and Romana track the third segment of the Key to Time to the vicinity of an ancient stone circle on Earth. But sinister forces are at work and the stones hide a secret.
The leaders of a druidic cult have been killed and it seems that the stones from the stone circle are alive and have a taste for human blood.
As the blood-hungry Ogri close in, the Doctor launches a desperate attempt to rescue Romana from hyperspace.
Kavanagh fights for justice on behalf of a young man brutally killed, in a rare private prosecution for murder. The odds, however, are against him, since there are powerful reasons for the truth to be kept hidden.