When rugby union star Sam Connon's wife is found murdered at her Yorkshire home, everyone at Wetherton Rugby Club is under suspicion. Dalziel, himself a club member, is sent in to investigate. The plot thickens when Dalziel learns that Sam's wife Mary was receiving prank letters and phone calls from a fellow member.

When the skeleton of a college principle who died five years before in Austria is found under her own memorial, Dalziel and Pascoe are called in. And when a second body turns up, an air of suspicion descends upon the campus as a world of academic rivalry and staff room treachery, blackmail, mistaken identity and suicide is uncovered.

Peter Pascoe and Ellie Soper finally take the plunge and get married, so Dalziel decides to have a holiday of his own. That is until the son of his hostess goes missing and the discovery of a body in the lake. It's all left down to Dalziel to solve the problems of fraud, murder and family conspiracy and get to the 'heart' of the matter.