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.

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

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.