Even in peacetime, death is just around the corner. London, VE Day, 1945.
Twenty-four-year-old Daisy Moore is at a crossroads. Racked with guilt over her mother's tragic death in a house fire, she needs a job and somewhere to live. She's offered a lifeline, working at the Dolphin Hotel in the quiet Oxfordshire village of Fernfield. It's a huge change after her exciting secret wartime work in London. Though the villagers aren't keen on outsiders - or young women who speak their mind. But when a body is found in one of the hotel bedrooms, Daisy must use all her skills to help find the murderer. Lucinda Laidlaw was a pacifist who lived with an Austrian Jewish refugee. And someone bashed in her skull with one of the hotel's trademark stone dolphin ornaments. Wounded war veteran Inspector Thaxted makes Felix Koller his number-one suspect. Felix is the beneficiary of Lucinda's will. But Daisy's not so sure he's the killer. And someone will do anything to stop Daisy finding out the truth.