The story begins in July 1955, on a quiet Saturday morning in a sleepy English village. There is going to be a funeral, and Jeff Weaver and his son Adam are digging a grave. A woman named Mary Blakiston is about to be buried. The atmosphere in the village is subdued but peaceful, and Jeff remarks, “If you’re going to die […] you couldn’t choose a better day” (15).

Reverend Robin Osborne adjusts his sermon before Mary’s funeral. He lives in a cozy vicarage with a warm kitchen, skylights, and windows looking out over a wooded area called Dingle Dell. Since moving there, his wife Henrietta turned the house into a home.

Robin describes how Mary was involved in the church and in the community, and how she worked as a cleaner at Pye Hall. Mary was always around and could be helpful, but she was also a busybody. Robin notes that a few weeks prior, Mary visited the vicarage with peppermint oil to help with a wasp problem and saw something she wasn’t supposed to see. A few days later, she suddenly passed away while the couple was on vacation.