Detective Inspector Jack Whicher finds himself traveling to a remote country house where he investigates the murder of a young child. He soon manages to discover a web of lies and concealment amid the family living there, which he thinks vindicates the police's chief suspect in the murder case.
After Mary Drew, the niece of Susan Spencer is discovered savagely murdered, she turns to the help of private investigator Jack Whicher to help bring those responsible to justice.
Whicher is hired by his one-time political master, former home secretary Edward Shore, to investigate threats made against his son Charles, who has recently returned to London from India with his young family. Shore fears entanglement in a scandal could have devastating repercussions for his career and insists the detective carry out the investigation without involving his former Met colleagues, even after a murder occurs. Whicher's pursuit of justice takes him to the most dangerous corners of the Docklands, but also brings him into contact with a woman who starts to melt his long-frozen heart.
Hired by West Country landowner Sir Henry Coverley, Whicher takes on a seemingly straightforward case of infidelity, following his client's young wife as she meets her lover in London. However, when a key witness mysteriously fails to attend the divorce hearing, the investigation takes a dark twist, leading the private inquiry agent into the heart of the English countryside and to the most disturbing and destructive of secrets.
