It's 1962, and all is not as it should be in this sleepy rural town. An elderly war widow wakes up to discover the naked body of a young man in the uppermost boughs of her Macrocarpa tree.
It's up to Senior Constable Elspeth Belfry and her lieutenant, Caddie, to solve the puzzle.
Will the battle-axe war widow and her wayward nurse be the first to fall under suspicion? Or the bumbling publican from over the bridge? What about his sultry wife – the one that looks like she just stepped out of a Tretchikoff painting? The local drunkard next door certainly invites further scrutiny. As does his peculiar housemate, a shut-in and would-be amateur ornithologist with a fascination for the oversized birds of pre-history. Who amongst these meek and mild townsfolk will be the first to show they have claws?