Commander Sam Vimes, of the City Watch in Ankh-Morpork, has an unbearable life. His loving wife, Lady Sybil, persuaded him to spend a few well-earned days of vacation in a wonderful, innocent rural village. But a city man like Vimes hates the countryside: so much fresh air, birdsong everywhere, and—thanks to his caring wife—so few bacon sandwiches… However, it is common knowledge that any policeman on vacation finds the first corpse before he even unpacks his suitcase. And soon, this rule comes true. Now Sam Vimes is up to his ears in an investigation. Because this isn’t a run-of-the-mill skeleton in the closet—it’s mountains, whole mountains of corpses, and a crime far older and more terrible than murder.