Three young girls are murdered in a few days at the seaside town of Harcombe during the Summer Carnival season. What is the motive for the killings? It doesn’t appear to be sexual. Detective Inspector Jonathan Rankin and Detective Sergeant Stan Hutchings believe at first that Raymond Perkins, a teenager employed by Funeral Director, Joseph Harvey, father of the first victim, Maureen Harvey, is the main suspect.

But Librarian Liz Sherlborne, Rankin’s landlady is not so sure when Tarot Reader and Psychic Esmeralda Corrie gives Inspector Rankin a message she says is from one of the dead girls.