Plot Summary:Folk festival organizer Toby Winning is found dead, his head held down in a bowl of water also containing eels and eggs. His estranged wife Alice seems unconcerned, unlike co-organizer Brian Grey, who, with Toby, had been planning to move the festival from Lower Crosby to London - to the annoyance of local businessmen including pub landlord Frank Wainwright and sound engineer Danny Carver. Danny is also angry when his daughter Melody takes to the stage playing the guitar once owned by his brother Johnny, a famous folk singer who shot himself. Visiting musician Jay Templeton seems keen to help Melody's career but was expecting something from Toby. Two more deaths follow, both in the manner of murders in a local folk song and to solve them Barnaby must discover the importance of Johnny's lost recording of the Ballad of Midsomer County.
Could a ballad made famous by late, lamented folk singer Johnny Carver be an inspiration for murder? Did someone want to kill Toby Winning for threatening to take the Little Crosby Folk Festival away from Midsomer – or is the true motive something hidden for 20 years?