Shakespearean scholar and crime solver Kate Stanley is back, this time as the director of Macbeth, Shakespeare's darkest (and possibly cursed) tragedy. Aging actress Lady Nairn's production will feature her own return to the stage, props and objects with historic associations to both the play and the actual Scottish king for whom it is named, and an early version of the script said to include actual magic rites, assuming Kate can find it. Quickly, the play's supposed curse begins to stir, leaving a series of grisly signs in its wake - including a severed thumb and an apparently sacrificed body - and Kate finds herself labeled as the prime suspect.