Editor Susan Ryeland is eagerly awaiting the manuscript from Clover Books' number one best-selling author Alan Conway, whose hero Atticus Pünd regularly solves murder mysteries in the fictional village of Saxby on Avon. Susan is drawn into her own mystery when she and her boss realise that the final chapter is missing and Conway is found dead in his shrubbery.

Staying with her sister Katie while searching for the missing last chapter, Susan visits Abbey Grange, the grand home of Alan Conway, where she discovers that his notes are also missing. Meanwhile, Atticus Pünd and his faithful assistant Fraser are in Saxby on Avon investigating the murder of Sir Magnus Pye.

As Susan and Charles attend the funeral of Alan Conway, his creation Atticus Pünd and his faithful secretary Fraser are also attending the funeral of Sir Magnus Pye. Much to Susan's horror, she realises that her world and Conway's fiction have more in common than mere coincidence.

Susan confronts Andreas about the incriminating photograph that has been e-mailed to her. In Saxby on Avon, Atticus Pünd assists Inspector Chubb in the investigation of the murders of Mary Blakiston and Magnus Pye by suggesting that police divers search the lake.

Susan is put under more pressure by Charles, who tells her that he has approached someone else for the CEO job at Clover Books, but she is seemingly no closer to finding the missing chapter. Atticus Pünd is confident that he has at last discovered the identity of the Saxby on Avon murderer.