When Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiance home to Lochdubh, everyone in town is delighted. . . except for love-smitten Hamish Macbeth. Yet the affairs of his heart will have to wait.

Vile, boorish Captain Bartlett, one of the guests at Priscilla's engagement party, has just been found murdered - shot while on a grouse hunt. Now with so many titled party guests as prime suspects, each with their own reason for snuffing out the despicable captain, Hamish must smooth ruffled feathers as he investigates the case. . . and catch a killer, before they fly the coop!