When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiancé home to Lochdubh, everybody in town is delighted, except for love-smitten Constable Hamish Macbeth.

Yet Hamish's affairs of the heart will have to wait. Vile, boorish Captain Bartlett, one of the guests at Priscilla's engagement party, has just been found murdered—shot while on a grouse hunt. Now with many titled party guests as the prime suspects, each with a reason for snuffing out the despicable captain, Hamish must smooth ruffled feathers as he investigates the case.

When the hidden culprit strikes again, Hamish will find himself trying to save Priscilla from a miserable marriage—and catch a killer before he flies the coop.