Daisy can't wait to see her best friend, Lucy Fotheringay, get married, but the nuptials take a somber turn when it is discovered that Lucy's great-aunt, Lady Eva Devenish, lies strangled in her bed on the morning of her wedding. There's no shortage of suspects - Lady Eva collected scurrilous gossip and there are those too who will benefit from her demise, including the bride-to-be.

But then another wedding guest dies in suspicious circumstances. Has one of the branches of the Fotheringay family tree turned poisonous? Or is there a murderous stranger at the wedding, intent on turning a celebration into a succession of funerals?