After student Alex Gartside is run over and killed, Vera visits the home she was housesitting for an elderly couple on holiday only to discover the corpse of a young man. Initially nobody can identify him, including Alex's mother, Vanessa, and neighbours Brian and Lorraine Hallam, or guess why Alex had moth traps in the garden. The mystery man is identified as solitary ex-offender Martin Neilson who volunteered for a charity to help former prisoners, which was hit with a blackmail scheme. There is also the matter of a love triangle involving Alex, Brian's barmaid daughter, Lizzie, and her boyfriend, Jason, whose van was seen near where Alex was killed. In wrapping up the case, Vera discovers events involving some of the suspects which date back for some ten years earlier.
—don @ minifie-1