A serial killer who murders young women who have just become engaged is at large, who after every death phones the local newspaper and quotes from Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Investigations centre around a fair, where the young relative of a psychic fortune teller who "saw" the death of Brenda Sorby is also murdered.

Dick Elgood, an old fiend of Dalziel's, unofficially reports two strange incidents which nearly kill him and asks Dalziel to investigate. The subsequent investigation by him and Pascoe exposes a chain of bizarre, accidental deaths stretching back nearly three decades but not a single shred of evidence to suggest foul play! Each of the, seemingly unconnected, deaths have somehow or other benefited Patrick Alderman even though it could not be proven that he had any connection to the deaths. The trail leads to Penny Highsmith, an old flame of Dalziel's, but goes cold when she is shown not to be involved. The case is eventually closed with the death, in mysterious circumstances, of Dick Elgood, the victim of yet another weird accident.

A car crash leaves Dalziel suspended from duty pending an investigation into drink-driving allegations. Pascoe probes the source of the claims against his boss, and exposes a web of conspiracy surrounding the violent death of an elderly Army veteran - all the while coping with being a dad of the Nineties and dealing with his senile father-in-law. Warren Clarke and Colin Buchanan star