Silchester is academic on summer vacation in a cottage in rural England with a taste for honey for breakfast and tea. He finds it increasingly difficult to obtain it as beekeepers in the area are going out of business with the exception of Mr. Hargrove, a sinister local apiarist. His neighbor, Mr. Mycroft, a retired public official, tries to warn Silchester that Hargrove has bred his bees to become deadly. Among the victims of these killer bees are other colonies in the neighborhood, Mycroft's dog, and Hargrove's own wife. When an attempt is made on his own life, the doubting Silchester joins forces with Mycroft to turn the tables on him.