On their way home from a motoring holiday in France, DC Sukey Reynolds and her friend and colleague, Vicky Armstrong, observe a man whose behaviour strikes them as suspicious - although on investigation they have to accept that their suspicions were groundless. Later, the man is killed in a road accident. The police have difficulty tracing his next of kin, and their enquiries show that he had links with a recently convicted drug dealer.

Meanwhile, DS Rathbone and Sukey are sent to deal with another, more gruesome incident: a woman's dismembered body has been found, washed up on the shores of the Bristol Channel. As investigations proceed, the two separate lines of enquiry become increasingly complex. Sukey's hunch that the cases are connected is brushed aside - but could a coded reference to a Greek God, and a Chinese tattoo meaning death, supply the missing pieces of the puzzle?