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Scotland Yard's Commander Adam Dalgleish is asked by Gabriel Dauntsey of the Peverell Press to look into an anonymous poison pen letter he received. It said that as he contributes nothing, he should do everyone a favor and take his own life. This is not the first such letter he's received but they are interrupted when Peverell employees discover the body of Sonya Clements in the firm's archives room. It has all of the hallmarks of a suicide and Dauntsey doesn't know if she too has been receiving letters. A portrait of Etienne's beloved predecessor is slashed and soon after his BMW is defaced with acid in the firm's garage. Dalgliesh believes someone has something against the firm but the working atmosphere has been bad since Gerard Etienne took charge a year ago. Etienne wants to sell the firm's beautiful Venetian building over the objection of Frances Peverell. After longtime author Esme Carling learns from Etienne that they will not publish her latest novel, she too is on the warpath against Etienne. There is soon another death at Peverell Press.

After Gerard Etienne is found dead in an upstairs room at the Peverell Press, Commander Dalgleish and DI Kate Miskin arrive to investigate. DI Daniel Aron joins them, his first day as a member of the team. Dalgleish's friend Gabriel Dauntsey notes that the room in which Etienne was found had apparently been cleaned. He also noted that the room was quite warm. Almost everyone at the firm may have had a reason to want him dead. The pathologist determines that something was put in Etienne's mouth after he died and then withdrawn, perhaps a small cassette tape. When Dalgleish learns from the dead Sonya Clements sister that she was banned from working in the archive room where her sister took her life, he begins to wonder if there's something in the archive they are not supposed to see.

After author Esme Carling is found floating in the Thames, Dalgleish re-questions the woman's 11 year-old neighbor who admits Esme wasn't home the night Gerard Etienne was killed. Others who may have had reason to want him dead have equally shaky alibis. DI Miskin looks into those and one in particular does not stand up to scrutiny. Another murder eliminates that person as a suspect. DI Daniel Aron finds a photo that links one of the Peverell Press employees to family dearths in Nazi concentrate camps in World War II. In the end, the killer does not obtain the satisfaction hoped for. A lapse of judgment on DI Aron's part leads to another ghastly death.