After the excitement of her recent adventures in Paris, Mrs Hudson goes to stay with her married daughter Eleanor in Bilbourne, a little village in Kent, the Garden of England. It is September, and the hop-harvest is in full swing at the nearby plantation belonging to Thomas Brakefield.
But if Mrs Hudson was hoping for some peace and quiet away from the city, she is to be disappointed, soon caught up in dark passions that culminate in a brutal murder.
At great risk to herself, Mrs Hudson goes in pursuit of the perpetrator.
With a rich cast of characters that include the tyrannical Thomas himself, his beautiful and aloof wife Lydia and neglected daughter Eve, his arch-enemy the bluff Squire Simister and his dandified son Freddie, as well as disgruntled hop pickers and the poor work-house boy, Timothy, that Mrs Hudson takes under her wing, the stage is set for a tense and thrilling drama.