When Ethel Griggs dies suddenly in the Victorian country town of Omeo in January 1928, rumours about her husband's blatant affair with Lottie, the lovely twenty year old daughter of local grazier and Methodist elder, Jack Condon, are rife. So rife that despite a doctor's certificate suggesting natural causes, police order Ethel Grigg's body to be exhumed and the young mother of eleven month old baby Alwyn is found to have died from arsenic poisoning. Her husband, the Rev. Ron Griggs, the district's Methodist minister, is charged with her cruel and heartless murder. Based on a true story, Reg Egan has recreated the town and its people, the atmosphere and the love affair that intrigued and shocked the whole of Australia. This is a true crime story that is as brutal and shocking today as it was in 1928.