While Banks is on holiday, Det. Insp. Annie Cabbot is called to the woods outside Eastvale, where a hanged manśoon identified as Mark Hardcastle, the local theater's set designerís discovered in a tree. What looks like a simple suicide takes an unexpected turn when the badly beaten body of Hardcastle's boyfriend, Laurence Silber, is found in Silber's posh home. Banks, who returns to assist in the investigation, uncovers Silber's past life as a spy in MI6, which makes Banks doubt the prevailing theory that Hardcastle murdered Silber and then hanged himself.