DCI Banks struggles to cope with the sudden death of his mother, as he investigates the murder of a young Estonian woman and the disappearance of her drug-dependent sister. He must navigate difficult emotional territory when the body of an eminent lawyer is washed up in an underground river and he suspects a member of her grieving family is responsible for her death.

In the third story, the body of a university student is found dumped in a ravine. His friends claim he was a model undergraduate, but officers Annie and Ken soon discover that he had a double life manufacturing ecstasy.