Merry old England, 1965. A fairground fortune teller predicts a terrifying future for sixteen-year-old Frances Adams: she will one day be murdered... Since then, she has dedicated her entire life to investigating a murder that has yet to happen. No one takes Frances's fears seriously until, sixty years later, her body is found in a library.

Present day. Annie Adams is invited to Gravesdown Hall, the sprawling country estate of her eccentric great-aunt Frances. But when she arrives in the quaint village of Castle Knoll, the old woman is already dead. And according to the terms of her will, her entire vast fortune, as well as the estate, will go to whoever solves the murder.