Love is in the air in Lochdubh! Love, and murder...

It is February and the Scottish Highlands village of Lochdubh is dealing with heavy snow and freezing temperatures.

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth can handle the weather, but with a surprise influx of high-society visitors for a Valentine's Day wedding at Tommel Castle Hotel, he has bigger problems. The guest list includes not one, but two women from his own romantic past!

And Hamish isn't the only one disrupted by the arrival of the wedding party. The groom - the supposedly suave and sophisticated Darius Palmerston - is involved in a series of incidents in the local pub. Tensions between guests and villagers escalate until, on the night of the wedding, Darius is found dead in the dining room - the cake-cutting sword plunged into his chest.

Hamish suddenly has a murder investigation on his hands, and one with a very long list of suspects.

With Lochdubh's rumour mill in overdrive, and with emotions and accusations running high, can Hamish keep a cool enough head to catch the killer?