After suffering a gunshot wound at the end of the last season Dalziel returns to work and is quickly caught up in a serial killers death, he is amazed to learn that the main witness in the strange death is Abbie Hallingsworth - a woman who went missing as a young child 18 years before (Dalziel even put someone in prison for a murder). Dalziel also manages to get off on the wrong foot with new Assistant Chief Constable Rebecca Fenning.

Dalziel and Pascoe have to investigate the murder of a member of the Harlesdon Hunt - tensions are high anyway with the anti-hunting element causing problems but Dalziel is not convinced a hunt saboteur is to blame, WDC Shirley Novello goes undercover amongst the hunt to try and find out thier secrets.

Dalziel and old flame Florence have their romantic getaway in Whitby ruined when a body is washed up on the beach there, when he and Pascoe investigate it takes them to a university and a possible involvement with Cold War Spies.

An apparently clear-cut murder investigation soon leads the detectives into a web of political intrigue and shady financial deals.