At a Wild West show in Ford Florey Faye Lennox is murdered. She was the estate manager and lover of unpopular farmer Jack Fincher,who is engaged in a long-standing dispute with neighbour Silas Burbage over a piece of waste-land.Soon afterwards Fincher is lassoed and dragged to his death. There is no shortage of suspects - the Burbage family,long-suffering wife Susan who is seemingly very close to stepson Leo,Dan Malko,who wants the waste-land as a permanent travellers' site and Mary Morgan,whose dog Fincher shot. Jude Langham,a local craftsman who blames Fincher for his father's death,claims to have the document which will settle ownership and he is attacked by an intruder out to steal it. He had made phone calls to the three parties interested in the land just before his attack.But one is also murdered and another person will die before Barnaby works out who is responsible for blood on the saddle.