Alleyn travels to the far from sleepy village of Swevenings, where a man has been found bludgeoned to death by a stream. The dead man, an old soldier, was planning the publication of the war memoirs of his friend Sir Harold Lacklander, and Alleyn needs to find out who was most threatened by this. Apart from petty vendettas, he finds a femme fatale and a retired soldier whose main pastimes are whisky and archery.