In episode one, Garden Of Death, the Inkpen-Thomas family, owners of Inkpen Manor in the village of Midsomer-Deverell, announce that their memorial garden will no longer be open to the public. The villagers are furious, and the decision churns up many old secrets in the town. Proud matriarch of the Inkpen family, Elspeth, shares the manor with Naomi (her daughter), Naomi's legitimate daughter Fliss and Naomi's put-upon illegitimate daughter, Hilary.

All is not well in the Inkpen household. Fliss, spoiled and cruel, is resentful of the arrival of Hilary after many years of not knowing she existed. But while Fliss continues to live a pampered life, Hilary is treated as a kind of Cinderella figure - a servant to Elspeth, Naomi and Fliss. When Fliss is found dead in the garden, her head bashed in with a spade, she is the first of several people murdered in Midsomer-Deverell. Fliss's mother Naomi is the next to die mysteriously - are the murders somehow linked?

What secrets does the Inkpen's memorial garden conceal? Does the gardener - who has been sleeping with both Fliss and Naomi - have something to do with the murders? And how might eminent local landowner, Augustus Deverell, be involved in the whole affair?