A young secretary is found raped and murdered in the car park of an Oxford pub. Morse and Lewis find that the girl was last seen getting into a car, while hitch-hiking with another woman, but neither the woman nor the driver of the car will come forward. Morse uncovers a complex web of relationships - passion and corruption, lies and unhappiness.

Jane Robson asks Morse to present a crossword prize at a summer school in Lonsdale College, and while he is dining with a group of overseas students, a young Japanese man dies in what seems to be a brutal ritual killing. It turns out that Morse has unwittingly given all his best suspects a watertight alibi. Morse is attracted to Jane Robson, although she is plainly a neurotic woman who suffers from mood swings and even temper tantrums. He finds that Jane's grandfather was a prisoner-of-war in the hands of the Japanese during the second world war, and he begins to suspect a complicated conspiracy.

The schoolgirl daughter of rich parents has been missing for six months. Morse believes she has been killed, and his investigations show curious goings on at the missing girl's school. But before Morse can unravel the mystery, he finds another.

Laura Poindexter, a rich American tourist, dies in the Randolph Hotel, Oxford, apparently from a heart attack, but Morse suspects foul play. Laura was due to return a historic jewel to an Oxford museum, and it has gone missing. Then Dr Kemp, who is a womanizing historian, dies of a fall, Lucy Downes is crushed to death in a telephone box, and Dr Kemp's widow appears to take a fatal overdose of Paracetomol. Morse believes the deaths are all linked.