The Second World War is drawing to a close. Nicholas Vaughan, invalided out of the Royal Navy, takes refuge in Devon, renting Little Thatch in the beautiful countryside at Mallory Fitzjohn. Hard work and rural peace make it a happy bachelor life for him. At Manor Thatch lives the bored, flirtatious June St Cyres, an exile from London, staying with her father-in-law while her husband Denis is being held prisoner in Burma. She resents the fact that Vaughan was granted the tenancy of Little Thatch over her friend Tommy Gressingham, an entrepreneur whose ambition is to build a country club in the area.When Little Thatch is destroyed in a blaze, all Vaughan's work goes up in smoke - and Chief Inspector Macdonald is drafted in to uncover a motive for murder...