While attending an anniversary party at his superior officer's house, Lynley is given the task of investigating the death by car of a woman. He and Havers think it odd that he is given the case, but doggedly pursue the truth. The woman was the mother of a gifted violinist who mysteriously abandoned his concert just at the time his mother was run down. As the plot deepens, connections to a crime 20 years earlier appear and tensions between Lynley and a fellow policeman boil over.