DS Andy Dalziel is forced to accept new recruit Peter Pascoe as the pair team up to investigate a serious murder case. Wetherton Rugby Club's golden boy, Sam Connon, wakes after arriving at home with a hangover, to find his wife, Mary, dead in the armchair. Being vice-president of the rugby club himself, Dalziel decides to ruffle a few feathers and find out who had enough of a motive to want to kill her. However, with the murder weapon nowhere to be found, evidence of the killer's involvement is rather thin on the ground. The discovery of hidden 'dirty' letters, discussion of naked foreplay at the bedroom window, and the unearthing of the murder weapon during the search for a missing eight-year-old boy make for the final pieces of the puzzle. Does someone at the rugby club bear a terrible grudge against the couple — or is the true murderer closer to home?
Dalziel and Pascoe are thrown into uni life when the body of former uni principal Alison Girling—who supposedly died in a bus crash in Austria—is found underneath her own memorial statue in the car park. Speaking to all of the staff who worked alongside Girling prior to her death, Dalziel struggles to make any headway until the body of Anita Sewell, a student accusing another staff member of sexual harassment is found naked on a nearby golf course. Suspecting they may have a serial killer on their hands, the trail leads straight to the doorstep of the accused – Sam Fallowfield – only for the pair to find his house trashed and homophobic slurs sprayed all over the wall. Suspecting the culprit is closer to home, Dalziel's anger blows its top when he arrives back at the university to find his temporary police HQ has been trashed by students. And then Fallowfield is found dead.
Having persuaded Pascoe to marry the long-suffering Ellie, Dalziel finds himself with the opportunity to whisk himself away on holiday while Pascoe is on honeymoon. But, as ever, events fail to go to plan when Dalziel's car breaks down and he finds himself amidst a river funeral procession. Invited to stay at the deceased's house by his attractive widow, Dalziel believes all his dreams have come true, until her son goes missing, the housekeeper ends up dead in Epping Forest, and an insurance investigator with a tip-off about an insurance scam regarding the family's newest business venture ends up drowned in a nearby lake.