Frank is playing 18 holes on Ballarat golf course when another club member, a local newspaper reporter, turns up dead in one of the bunkers. Frank and Blake soon discover there is a lot more to local politics than meets the eye.

Everyone gathers at Ballarat Observatory to view the eclipse. In the darkness there is a commotion, and standing over a body as the lights are turned on is none other than Dr Lucien Blake. The finger of suspicion falls on him - even Chief Supt Frank Carlyle has no option but to put him in the cells, and Blake has his toughest case yet to find another suspect and prove his innocence.