In the Yorkshire countryside, middle-aged accountant and financial consultant Keith Rothwell is murdered while his wife and daughter are forced to watch. Detective Inspector Alan Banks and his assistant, Constable Susan Gay, are the lead investigators on the case. As Banks and Gay investigate, they reveal the victim to have been a conservative, quiet man virtually devoid of personality and style. But then a beautiful young musician sees Rothwell's picture in the paper and reveals that he had a secret life: as Robert Calvert, the musician's former lover. Meanwhile, Rothwell's financial dealings are coming into focus: he was skimming from one of his clients, a drug-dealing Caribbean dictator, and may have been murdered for his transgressions. The few loose ends to the case trouble Banks, and he pursues them until he draws a surprising conclusion.