When the body of a French woman washes up off the Cornish coast, local cop Brian Macalvie is called in. Twenty miles away on Land's End, inspector Richard Jury is sharing a drink with the legendary former CID detective Tom Brownell, who discloses that there was one case he failed to solve. In the days following the slaying of the Parisian tourist, two other murders occur, and despite the distances between them, there seems to be a link. Following The Knowledge, Jury's 25th case pairs him with Macalvie and Brownell, but this killer could evade all three of these veteran lawmen.