Back at work after a long convalescence, Andy Dalziel is asked by Commander Mick Purdy to help Gina Wolfe, who has come to Mid-Yorkshire in search of a husband missing for seven years. In this 24th outing (after The Price of Butcher's Meat), Gina's husband was a DI tormented by the death of their young daughter and under suspicion after serious leaks from a case he was working. An East End loan shark who has become a political operator, Goldie Gitman certainly knows something about it, and he won't let the truth to come out.