A skydiving fundraiser for charity goes horribly wrong, leaving a wealthy lord deceased and everyone at odds over whether it was merely a tragic accident or a cold-blooded murder. Father Tom Christmas skydives to raise money for the parish in Thornford Regis and, while his landing is bumpy, it is nothing compared to that of Hector, Earl of Fairhaven, who leaps from twenty thousand feet with disastrous results. Some of the townpeople, including all members of the Earl's household, however, believe that those results were not accidental, and soon Tom Christmas is investigating a crime that will take him into the secrets of his own past, and lead him to his own difficult landing.