The tangy smell of smoke hangs heavy in the air, mingling with the early morning mist. As it lifts, a shape emerges in the centre of the tranquil meadow. A scarecrow? No... rising from the ashes of a dying fire, stands a blackened wooden cross - and tied to it, the dark outline of a body. When a woman is found burnt at the stake on the edge of a pretty English village, the police suspect this is no ordinary murder...