When a costumed, pike-spiked body turns up after a traditional historic reenactment of the 1645 Battle of Thornford, Father Tom Christmas and the villagers of Thornford Regis find themselves in a battle of their own as they deal with events from the murky, more recent past.

The Unpleasantness at the Battle of Thornford is a non-canonical Father Christmas mystery. The events described take place shortly after those in Ten Lords a’Leaping.