A recent widower and acclaimed poet, enigmatic Inspector Adam Dalgliesh employs his exceptional empathy and insight to plumb the darker depths of the human psyche while investigating complex crimes in 1970s England.

Detective Matthew Venn returns to the small North Devon community he grew up in with his husband and begins investigating a murder whilst coming to terms with his own traumatic past, having been excommunicated by his family and the church community they lived in.