For many years Westonbury Cathedral has been dominated by a clique of High Church gays, so when Norman Cooper, an austere, intolerant, happy - clappy evangelist, is appointed dean, there is shock, outrage and fear.<br/>David Elworthy, the gentle and politically innocent new bishop, is distraught at the prospect of warfare between the factions; contentious issues include the outrageous Lady chapel and the gay memorial under construction in the deanery garden. <br/>Desperate for help, Elworthy cries on the shoulder of his old friend, the redoubtable Baroness Troutbeck, who forces her unofficial troubleshooter, Robert Amiss, to move into the bishop's palace.<br/>Amiss, Troutbeck, and the cat Plutarch address themselves in their various ways to the bishop's problems, which very soon swell to include a clerical corpse in the cathedral. Is it suicide? Or is it murder? And who is likely to be next?