Scotland Yard's Adam Dalgliesh is searching for a "back seat strangler" who has already murdered four people. When an unpopular forensic scientist is found dead in a British government laboratory, Dalgliesh discovers that almost everyone there could be a suspect. When another body is found nearby, the detective must race against time to find the killer.

Explores the true meaning of justice when a brilliant, but widely unpopular, defense attorney is found stabbed to death, a barrister's wig on her head, and her body drenched in blood that is not her own.