The lost gardens of Earlsacre Hall in Devon are being excavated by a local team of historians before being restored to their former glory. However, the dig is halted when a skeleton is discovered under a 300 year old stone plinth, a corpse that seems to have been buried alive. But, despite the intriguing circumstances, DS Wesley Peterson has little time to indulge in his hobby or archeology, even when more skeletons turn up in the walled garden. He has a more recent murder case to solve. A man has been found stabbed to death in a caravan at a popular holiday park and the only clue to his identity is a newspaper cutting about the restoration of the lost gardens of Earlsacre.