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.

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.

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.

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?