Plot Summary:A pregnant Cordelia is hired by Chief Inspector Fergusson to investigate Tim Bolton, a doctor who is dating his daughter Laura and of whom Fergusson disapproves. Bolton is also having an affair with his colleague's wife and soon afterwards he is stabbed to death. Following an anonymous tip-off from another police officer,Cordelia learns that Bolton's father was a policeman with Fergusson but, after a bungled job in which Bolton took the blame and Fergusson the glory, he committed suicide. Is Fergusson being black-mailed? Or is the distraught wife with whom he was having the affair out for revenge? Or maybe Laura is not as innocent as she seems.
Cordelia's old adversary DCS Fergusson hires her to look into his daughter's boyfriend, but nothing is ever as straightforward as that in this agency.