A man shoots himself in the offices of an investment bank. Rebus is tipped off to a possible financial scandal, but his investigation is frustrated by powerful interests.

A charity campaigner is caught with a prostitute during a raid on a brothel. Rebus heads a double murder investigation when the man's wife and another woman are found dead in connected incidents.

The detective angers his superiors when he tries to connect a member of Edinburgh's criminal fraternity to the shooting of two boys and a teacher at a local college.

The body of a missing prostitute is found, and the circumstances echo an unsolved murder from twenty years before. Rebus is convinced that the prime suspect from the earlier case has struck again.