When tensions flare up between local workers and some communist students, the students' leader is found dead the next morning on the Eureka stockade memorial. It falls to Blake to sift through the politics and intrigue and find the killer, while Mattie's relationship with her father becomes strained when he discovers she was friends with the communists.

One of Ballarat Hospital's most prominent surgeons is found dead on his own operating table. Investigating, Blake is drawn into a web of jealousy and sexual intrigue. Meanwhile, as Chief Superintendent Munro's enmity towards Blake continues, an old ally of Blake's returns from Melbourne.