Lochdubh's (pronounced Lochdoo) dustman, Fergus Wilson, lives in a small, run-down cottage with his wife, Martha, and four children. He's a sour little man given to domestic violence and drinking, and getting by with a one-day work week. No one pays him much attention until Mrs. Freda Fleming, a bullying environmentalist, is elected to Strathbane Council.

A politically ambitious woman, Mrs. Fleming decides to make an example out of Lochdubh. She will set up an elaborate recycling center in the village -- and its success will bring national attention, including widespread television coverage. She enlists Wilson as her ally (at double his usual salary), gives him a new uniform, a new truck, and sets the plan into action.

Power corrupts, and Fergus Wilson becomes a bullying tyrant, issuing fines and enforcing petty rules. When he's found dead, stuffed in a recycling bin, no one is sorry, including his long-suffering family... and the victims of his blackmailing rackets.

While Hamish Macbeth is investigating the murder, he is also coping with new edicts from Mrs. Fleming, his lazy new constable, and labor trouble at the brand new ocean front hotel.