There's nothing Detective Inspector Charlie Priest hates more than a case involving children. When Georgina, the eight-year-old daughter of local businessman Miles Dewhurst, goes missing, Charlie and his colleagues soon start to fear the worst. And Charlie's suspicions are focused on Dewhurst -- is his performance as desolate parent a little too pat? Meanwhile, these are dangerous times for clergymen. Three have died suddenly, and a picture of a Destroying Angel mushroom has been left beside the body of the most recent victim. It seems that something more than coincidence links the deaths -- but why would a serial killer focus on men of the cloth? As he races against time to find Georgina, and happens upon the first real clue in the hunt for the Mushroom Man, Charlie Priest has another preoccupation -- his tentative pursuit of bishop's widow Annabelle. And Charlie's courtship is about to take a dramatic turn -- for he is more deeply embroiled in one of the cases than he realises...