The death of a working class girl on the grounds of an English Manor House in 1935 sets the local law enforcement officers on the hunt for who might have committed such a terrible crime. The aristocratic family who own the manor house are an oddly suspicious bunch of characters but, then again, so are several other persons connected to the girl from her work place, a public house in London. Miss Edna Winwood, the personal secretary to Sir Clifford Minnington, cannot seem to keep from mulling the events and the characters over in her mind as she tries to solve the riddle of the death of the beautiful young girl. A vital clue will be discovered during an elaborate dinner party at the manor house and will lead to the arrest of a suspect. But that is not the end of "Salmon Surprise". The last chapter has a surprise twist that even (almost) eluded Miss Winwood.