A spate of robberies targeting elderly women has shocked the normally sedate town of Leek to its core. And now it appears that the robbers have moved on to murder. At the eerily named Spite Hall, the body of Nancy Lawrence has been found bludgeoned to death, lying over the tapestry she was in the process of embroidering. Why have the robbers killed this time? When Detective Inspector Joanna Piercy begins her investigation she is surprised to find that the victims next door neighbour is Nan's brother and is even more shocked to discover that the pair have not spoken for years. With the aid of her colleagues, Joanna unravels a mystery - the tangled threads of which a rooted years in the past.