DS Andy Dalziel is forced to accept new recruit Peter Pascoe as the pair team up to investigate a serious murder case. Wetherton Rugby Club's golden boy, Sam Connon, wakes after arriving at home with a hangover, to find his wife, Mary, dead in the armchair. Being vice-president of the rugby club himself, Dalziel decides to ruffle a few feathers and find out who had enough of a motive to want to kill her. However, with the murder weapon nowhere to be found, evidence of the killer's involvement is rather thin on the ground.

Dalziel and Pascoe are thrown into uni life when the body of former uni principal Alison Girling—who supposedly died in a bus crash in Austria—is found underneath her own memorial statue in the car park. Speaking to all of the staff who worked alongside Girling prior to her death, Dalziel struggles to make any headway until the body of Anita Sewell, a student accusing another staff member of sexual harassment is found naked on a nearby golf course.

Having persuaded Pascoe to marry the long-suffering Ellie, Dalziel finds himself with the opportunity to whisk himself away on holiday while Pascoe is on honeymoon. But, as ever, events fail to go to plan when Dalziel's car breaks down and he finds himself amidst a river funeral procession.