Causton, a city on the outskirts of London, is buzzing with excitement as a new brewery opens at the site of a famously cursed Abbey. The brewery is expected to bring in millions of pounds of tourism and jobs, but the locals are skeptical that the brewery will be profitable.
As the opening ceremony approaches, there are murmurs of concern among the crowd. It's said that the previous owner of the Abbey had been killed by a mysterious force after opening the brewery. Some people believe that the brewery is cursed, and they're afraid that it could be the same thing happening again.
One evening, DCI Barnaby and DS Winter are called to investigate a gruesome discovery. A man has been found boiled to death in one of the vats. The police are puzzled; could this really be about beer?
They start their investigation by interviewing the employees of the brewery, who claim that the man died while working on a special recipe for the brewery's flagship beer. But when they check the ingredients, they find that the recipe is missing something crucial.
Barnaby and Winter realize that they need to find out what was missing before it's too late. They begin to dig deeper into the history of the Abbey and its previous owners, trying to uncover any clues that might explain the curse.
As they delve deeper, they encounter some strange occurrences around the brewery, including strange noises coming from the vats and strange symbols etched into the walls. They also discover that the previous owner had been obsessed with brewing the perfect beer, which he believed would bring him eternal life.
But when he discovered that his beer was not brewing correctly, he became consumed by anger and frustration, and began to drink heavily. He eventually lost control of himself, and killed himself with a mixture of alcohol and arsenic.
The police realize that this is not just an isolated incident. They suspect that the brewery is cursed, and that it may have been used as a way to kill the previous owner's obsession with perfection.
With their investigation taking them deeper and deeper into the dark secrets of the Abbey, Barnaby and Winter must decide whether to continue their search or turn back. But they know that they must finish what they started, and that the fate of the city rests on their shoulders.
