When DI Tom Thorne arrives at the Underground station where a woman threw herself in front of a train, he expects to be in and out in no time. Discovering that she had been the victim of a con man who preys on vulnerable women, however, Thorne enlists DI Nicola Tanner to help him bring the swindler to justice. But in this 16th case (after The Killing Habit), the detective duo gets more than they bargained for when a young man's body turns up on the shore of a seaside town and the cases come together in a way that no one could have foreseen.