Dalziel and Pascoe are tasked with investigating four suspicious deaths occurring within hours of one another: the first is of a French art dealer, who appears to have either slipped or was pushed from the side of a motorway bridge; the second, a Russian national whose coffin is found floating just off the coast of Whitby; the third, a Japanese tourist, found stabbed atop a famous beauty spot mentioned in Wuthering Heights; and the fourth, an East German agent, seeking a German academic's writings containing secret information the Stasi don't want published.