When stable owner Ruth Colvin invites former DC homicide cop Marty Singer and his partner Julie Atwater to spend a week at her central Virginia equestrian farm, they think they're getting a much-needed vacation in the region's storied horse and wine country.But when star polo player Freddie Ferrar winds up shot to death at the estate of a local billionaire, and in the midst of a rash of vandalism that threatens to bankrupt Ruth's farm, Marty is pressed into service to get to the bottom of a series of crimes-some hundreds of years in the making-and bring justice to The Bitter Fields.