Father Brown, priest at St Mary's Catholic Church, solves murder cases and uses the distinctive skills of his close friends as well as his own wits to solve cases, occasionally to the neglect of his more mundane parish duties. so that the letter of the law may be served. The 1950s is when Britain was still struggling with deprivation and shortages in the aftermath of the hardships of the Second World War. The country still applies the death penalty sentence for capital crimes such as murder.