Stranded in a rural inn on England's southeast coast, Lori discovers the location's past as a smuggler hangout before investigating suspicious activities among the living and the dead that may be responsible for ghostly nighttime noises.

With advice from a ghost-- her dead Aunt Dimity-- Lori learns that she is stranded at an inn that was once a hangout for smugglers. Her husband Bill is paying a visit to a reclusive client, and Lori is hearing ghostly noises in the night. The King's Ransom is riddled with secret tunnels once used to reach a network of hidden caves. Are the noises Lori hears made by the spirits of long dead smugglers? Or should she be more worried by the inn's living inhabitants?