Suffolk, 1934: when the Very Reverend Eckhart Vale, the 'Red Dean' of Midchester Cathedral, falls to his death during Evensong, the police are only too quick to dismiss the whole affair as a tragic accident, and the only guilty party some rotten wooden railings. The Reverend Lucian Shaw, bicycling enthusiast, country parson and former army chaplain, is the only person to have seen the Dean fall, and begins to ask questions - questions that lead him into very dangerous waters. Who is loitering in the Cathedral Close at night, keeping watch on the houses? Why has Shaw been categorically warned off by the police? Who - or
what
- was the mysterious figure he glimpsed behind the Dean moments before his death? Could there be, as the servants darkly whisper, demonic influences at work? Shaw begins to realise that something very sinister is afoot in the ancient cathedral, but will he survive long enough to find out what?