Life is a bed of roses for Patrick Aldermann when Great Aunt Florence collapses into her Madam Louis Laperrieres and he inherits Rosemont House with its splendid gardens.

But when his boss, 'Dandy' Dick Elgood, suggests to Peter Pascoe that Aldermann is a murderer, then retracts the accusation, the inspector is left with a thorny problem.

By then Police Cadet Singh, Mid-Yorkshire's first Asian copper, had dug up some very interesting information about Patrick's elegant wife Daphne.

Superintendent Dalziel, meanwhile, is attempting to relive the days of Empire with Singh as his tea-wallah.