Et ego in Arcadia.... The Downland parishes are safely gathered in to the Woolfonts combined benefice. January 2016 begins quietly and contentedly: the villages are recovering from panto season and Christmas, His Grace hasn't done anything outrageous, Professor the baroness Lacy and Prof. Farnaby are eager to return, come Springtide, to the archaeological survey....

All is calm.

And in the next six months, there shall be tragedy, and crime, and dirty dealings, and a scholarly discovery which rocks the Downlands and the academic world; and it shall take all of Canon Paddick's saintliness, all of the duke's cunning, and all of Lady Lacy's formidable wisdom, to bring the District through and see all right in the end.

Simply another half of the year in the Woolfonts and Downlands, really.