When a member of staff is found dead at the hospital, Lawson immediately suspects former morgue attendant Ron Jackson, who has vanished without trace. While the manhunt for Jackson begins, preparations for Anzac Day celebrations are underway in Ballarat. Lucien Blake encounters an old friend from the army at the colonial club. Major Derek Alderton is in town looking for two deserters, but that's all Blake's allowed to know.

Blake is called to a prisoner on death row who is delirious. The prisoner, Sean McBride, confessed to a murder long ago and pleaded guilty. But in McBride's delirium, Blake hears him say he didn't do it. With a signed confession, and with McBride maintaining his guilt when he recovers, Blake faces a struggle to find proof and convince Lawson that McBride should not hang. Meanwhile, outside the prison in Ballarat, tensions run high about the rights and wrongs of capital punishment and Blake finds himself out of his depth.