Simon Meagor is a lonely middle-aged man. With a broken marriage behind him, his life centers solely on his antiquarian bookshop. Still haunted by the memory of a suicide he feels
responsible for, Simon’s horror only multiplies when Morwenna, the daughter of that man who committed suicide, applies for a job in his shop. Mesmerized by her, Simon finds himself agreeing
to her employment. Cleverly, over a period of time, Morwenna manipulates herself into his work, his life, and finally into his room above the shop. And then she disappears. When her body is
discovered in a flooded quarry, suicide is considered since Morwenna was suffering from a fatal disease. Inevitably, however, suspicion falls on Simon Meagor. Wycliffe becomes intrigued and
increasingly disturbed by this new and shocking case, which grows more and more complicated as he delves even deeper into a dark and murky past.