A photographer is murdered shortly after exhibiting a compromising picture of Barnaby - who becomes a suspect in the ensuing investigation. Joyce concludes that someone is trying to frame him, and is stunned when he admits to a previous relationship with the murdered man's wife. Jones is forced to work with the irritating DI Martin Spellman to solve the case.

DCI Barnaby's former colleague Jack Colby left the force under a cloud following a sex scandal involving villagers and officers at Causton police station. Now retrained as a probation officer, Jack is working at a halfway house for reformed criminals run by Lord Holm, an aristocrat who once served a prison sentence for killing his wife. However, when Jack is bludgeoned to death, Barnaby sets out to discover who murdered the man he once considered a friend.