After a young black girl is murdered, Gently uncovers a disturbing and malevolent racist undercurrent lurking both within the local community and his own police force.
Gently and Bacchus experience the inflated authority of their "social betters" firsthand when a beautiful young girl is found dead in the passenger seat of an upturned car registered to local aristocrats.
Gently and Bacchus are given an insight into the complexities of the emotionally wrought world when the adopted child of a middle-class couple is kidnapped.