Still reeling from the tragic death of a much-loved colleague, Detective Chief Constable Bob Skinner and his men soon discover that a disturbed serial killer is still at large and very close to home. The body of a young woman has been found on a golf course. It has been there for 10 days, and it is the middle of a steamy summer holiday; she's not a pretty sight. But the way she has been laid out is uncannily familiar. The body has been “composed,” just like the bodies of three other young women in a previous case. Could it be the work of a copycat killer? Further investigation finds that the woman was having a relationship with the son of a Tory MP, and that her ex-boyfriend is a policeman with a reputation as a serious womanizer. Now Skinner must find the killer as fear spreads through Edinburgh, and politicians begin to raise their heads.