Recently widowed and struggling to find her place in a world without her husband, Lady Matilda Farnworth reluctantly agrees to judge the village's annual dog show, accompanied by her late husband’s mischievous basset hound, Wellington, and her well-meaning but comically confused companion, Hetty Trelawny. But the event takes a dark turn when the show’s front-runner, an elegant Pekingese, is discovered beside the strangled body of its owner, the spirited socialite Adelaide Forsythe, her own dog’s lead around her neck. With the village in shock and the local authorities baffled, Lady Matilda finds herself drawn into the investigation. From a disgruntled military man with a penchant for spaniels to a spinster with a sharp tongue and a secret to hide, it seems everyone in Little Biddington has something to gain—and lose—from Adelaide’s demise. But as Lady Matilda digs deeper, she uncovers more than she bargained for, including a tangled web of jealousy, deceit, and a decades-old affair. Can Lady Matilda, with a little help from Hetty’s malapropisms and Wellington’s keen nose for trouble, uncover the truth before the killer strikes again?