Gentle, kindly, impoverished bachelor, Thomas Potts, is forced to fill the unwanted, unpopular post of 'Constable' of the Parish of Tardebrigge, Worcestershire. Timid by nature, physically weak, constantly hectored by his shrewish widowed mother, Tom is jeered at by the notorious, savagely violent 'Needle Pointers', and despised by the local ruling Gentry...But, when a homicidal maniac begins murdering and mutilating women, and terror spreads through the parish, it is Tom, The Reluctant Constable, who must identify, hunt down and confront this killer.