Jennifer Ormiston, a lively and controversial local radio presenter, is found dead in an antique bath in her upmarket flat, an apparent suicide.

Three weeks earlier, we meet a number of very different characters, all of whom are connected in some way to Jennifer Ormiston: the mother of a traumatised child, her husband and brother-in-law, both respected professionals, a newly-appointed Catholic priest and a woman with a troubled past, recovering in a secure psychiatric hospital.

A series of threatening letters, dark memories from the past and fraught relationships play their part in the inquiry by Detective Sergeant Tim Laughland into a mysterious disappearance and what turns out to be the murder of Jennifer Ormiston, all the while navigating his own relationship with his on-off partner and fellow officer. 

As the possible suspects mount up, Laughland and his superior officer are plunged into a fast-moving investigation, the conclusion of which is both shocking and unexpected.