Gladys Lancashire and Cynthia Tilling live in a retirement community called The Village where little happens to disturb their daily routine until a newspaper report on the cold case of banker Richard Pennington catches their eye. Penningtons body was left thirty years previously on the common next to The Village on the exact spot where riding his bicycle on Christmas Day he knocked over and injured an eight-year-old girl, Jekina Iqbal who later died. Their curiosity aroused, the women visit the scene of the two incidents and find a credit card buried in the undergrowth which dates to the time the body was found. Together with their fellow Village resident, ex-senior police officer George Skelton they follow a trail which leads to Jekinas aunt, a lawyer and one of the leading supporters of womens rights in the world being put on trial for murder.