Against his better judgment, Robert Amiss lets the Baroness "Jack" Troutbeck persuade him to take a job with her friend Canon Flubert.

Too late, Amiss realizes he's stumbled into a maelstrom of scandal. The church is in an uproar over the appointment of the new dean, Norm Cooper, a fundamentalist American with a crazed wife. Cooper spells doom for the radical gay priests, feminist witches, and New Age cult members who have ruled the church for decades, and they aren't about to take his appointment with a grain of salt.

When the dean turns up dead, Amiss and the Baroness are surrounded by suspects. To make matters worse, the Baroness insists on befriending every zealot, fanatic, and radical in sight, dragging Amiss through countless teeth-grinding adventures as they search for the killer.