Mary Tant's latest classic murder mystery, the sixth to feature Lucy Rossington and her family, is set in a remote moorland hamlet over the New Year. Lucy and her friends find themselves enmeshed in a conflict between tradition, family loyalties and new ways of thinking, in which the unpredictable weather plays a significant part.

Not everyone is pleased when Berhane comes back to the moor. She was first there as an adopted child, now she's back to stay. But her return is like a stone dropped into a quiet pool, creating ever-widening ripples. The village sees its order disrupted, its peace disturbed. The trouble comes slowly, quietly, until at last somebody dies. Lucy Rossington is visiting the village for New Year with family and friends. She's expecting a more exotic time, perhaps, than usual. But she isn't anticipating trouble. Yet she knows the irascible archaeologist, Mike Shannon, thinks that trouble comes as soon as the four of them get together - more trouble than just his antagonism to the ebullient actress, Anna Evesleigh. At least Lucy's husband, Hugh Carey, is a tower of strength, but is that going to be enough? For as the snow comes down and the bells ring out the New Year, they unknowingly herald another death. And soon Lucy is drawn into danger again. Will she be able to save her friend? The odds seem to be against it.