In the wake of an unthinkable family tragedy, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is struggling to fill her empty days. For a needed escape, Dogger, the loyal family servant, suggests a boating trip for Flavia and her two older sisters. As their punt drifts past the church where a notorious vicar had recently dispatched three of his female parishioners by spiking their communion wine with cyanide, Flavia, an expert chemist with a passion for poisons, is ecstatic. Suddenly something grazes her fingers as she dangles them in the water. She clamps down on the object, imagining herself Ernest Hemingway battling a marlin, and pulls up what she expects will be a giant fish. But in Flavia’s grip is something far better: a human head, attached to a human body. If anything could take Flavia’s mind off sorrow, it is solving a murder—although one that may lead the young sleuth to an early grave.


經歷一場無法置信的家庭悲劇後，十二歲的芙拉維亞．德盧斯，努力填補空虛的日子。為了讓芙拉維亞和她的兩名姐姐離開當下的環境，忠心的家僕多格向她們提議一趟乘船之旅。船隻經過一座教堂，那裡的牧師惡名昭彰，最近他還在三名女信徒的聖餐酒中添加氰化物以指使她們，而芙拉維亞是一位熱衷於研究毒藥的化學家，她對此激動不已。芙拉維亞將手指放入水中擺盪著，突然有東西滑過她的指間，她緊緊抓住這個物體，幻想自己是厄尼斯特．海明威，正在與一條馬林魚搏鬥，並期望拉起一條大魚。然而，芙拉維亞所拉起的東西遠遠超乎預期：一顆連帶屍體的頭顱。能夠讓芙拉維亞忘卻心中悲傷的事情就是破解一起謀殺案——儘管此案件可能讓這位年輕的偵探提早邁向死亡。