DCI John Barnaby's relationship with his new partner, DS Ben Jones, is off to a rough start after the older detective belittles Jones's enthusiasm for a local classic-car show. When one of the show's judges is found dead near a vintage car, the two detectives are forced to cooperate before the killer can strike again.
As two prominent families plan a reenactment of a Civil War battle between their ancestors, the aristocratic DeQuettevilles are haunted by a headless horseman, rumored to foretell the death of those who see him. Barnaby and Jones delve into historical rivalries and family feuds to expose the phantom rider and end the trail of carnage.
A wealthy eccentric dies on the opening night of his outdoor sculpture park, with his body positioned in one of the artworks. Barnaby and DS Charlie Nelson soon realize that the victim had made enemies in the art community, the village, and even in his own family.
After a vandal smashes a stained-glass window at Midsomer Priory, the insular community refuses the detectives' help. But after one of their own is murdered, they're forced to open the nunnery's door to investigators, who realize that a nun may be hiding something from her past.
The head of Calder's Biscuits dies on a business trip to Copenhagen. Upon finding that he was poisoned by biscuits sent from Midsomer, Danish detective Birgitte Poulsen asks Barnaby to join the inquiry. Together they expose the lethal legacy of a double life.
Gregory Lancaster dies at home surrounded by his family, but when the undertakers arrive, they discover that the corpse has disappeared. When another body connected to the Lancaster family goes missing from a cemetery, Barnaby and Nelson must search for a serial body-snatcher.
