On the dawn of All Soul's Day, the body of a successful Bath businessman is found in a shallow grave in the shadow of the Glastonbury Tor. The detective duo's first suspect is local artist Hector Ingham, although McDonald can't help but be suspicious of the man who found the body, the mysterious Martin Silver - IT consultant by day, medium by night - who claims to be able to speak to the dead. As increasingly cryptic clues come to light, one name keeps reoccurring in paper trails, credit card statement and on the lips of witnesses…that of Dodds himself.

A social media influencer Rose Boleyn elects to have plastic surgery at a clinic run by soon to be divorced couple Al and Mariel. After tragedy strikes, McDonald & Dodds are brought in to investigate the clinic and its staff. 

Formula 1 fan McDonald finds herself drawn into that fast and furious world when an up-and-coming driver, racing for the British motorsport dynasty the Addingtons, dies during a pit stop. McDonald refuses to let patriarch and team coach Archie Addington run rings around her but she's thrown when someone from her past gets dragged into the investigation.

When a young woman dies in a busy park in broad daylight, McDonald and Dodds are called in to untangle the mysterious circumstances of her death. Who is she? How did she die surrounded by witnesses? And how is it possible that she is…smiling?

All roads seem to lead to Professor George Gillian, a linguistic anthropologist who lives in a rambling mansion with his eccentric mother, Agnes, whose 100th birthday is days away. DS Dodds is sure that the house has something to do with the murder, but in uncovering Belvedere's history, Dodds also unearths secrets in his own past.