Investigating the murder of an English businessman who was universally despised in Cambury but respected in London, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge sifts through a list of potential killers and begins to believe he may not be able to prove his suspicions.
In the spring of 1918, during World War I and the Spanish flu epidemic, Bess Crawford discovers, concealed among the dead waiting to be buried, the body of an officer who has been murdered.