In Herefordshire's hop-growing country, a converted kiln is the scene of
a savage murder. When the local vicar refuses to help its new owners
cope with the aftermath, Merrily Watkins is sent in by the Bishop of
Hereford to defuse the situation.
Merrily, however, is already contending with a woman's claim that her
daughter is possessed by evil. In both cases Merrily remains
unconvinced, but nothing is ever quite what it seems.
As she is drawn into a tangle of trickery, deceit, corruption and sexual
menace, her hastily conducted exorcism produces unhappy results. With
her career now on the line, she tries to uncover the secrets of Knight's
Frome - a village concealing a past as twisted as the hop-bines which
once enclosed it.