Deputy Assistant Commissioner Charlie Hillian is killed on the night of his retirement party. Hillian was at one time a senior officer in Oxford and was in fact Morses boss. He was also writing a book about his most memorable cases, including one about the unsolved death of an 8-year-old girl some 18 years ago. The suspect in that case, Frederick Redpath, was at Hillians house the day he died and that chapter from the manuscript is missing. There are other suspects however, including Hillians ghost writer who will now receive all of the books royalties; a handyman who was working on the property; and Redpaths daughter, who knew the little girl who was killed all those years before. Morse comes into conflict with with a colleague DCI Dawson, who was one of Hillians protégés, as they again look into the little girls death.