Murder stopped play. The villagers of Little Bolton gather on the green one glorious Sunday afternoon for their weekly cricket match. With the game underway nobody suspects that among the men in whites stands a killer. But when one of their number mysteriously collapses out on the field, Inspector Dalliance is sent in to investigate foul play. Soon enough he realises that the rural idyll in which he finds himself is in fact a viper's nest of bitter feelings and intense rivalries. With the modern world encroaching on their traditional way of life, the stakes are higher for these people than Dal.