In Newcastle, the haven of equality found at the Carlton Ballroom all-nighter is destroyed when a young black girl, Dolores Kenny, is murdered, leading Gently to uncover a disturbing and racist undercurrent growing within the local community.

The indefatigable Chief Inspector George Gently and Detective Sergeant John Bacchus experience the inflated authority of their "social betters" first hand, when a beautiful young girl called Ellen Mallam is found dead in the passenger seat of a an upturned car registered to local aristocrats.

Gently and Bacchus are thrown into an emotionally-wrought case when a middle class couple’s adopted child is kidnapped. It takes them to a mother and baby home where young single mothers are forced to give up their infants, where the shame of illegitimacy still burns the cheeks of single mothers.