When a wayward girl from the local reform school is found dead in Lake Wendouree, Dr Lucien Blake is immediately suspicious and shocks the police with his unconventional investigative methods.

On the eve of Anzac Day, Dr Lucien Blake is called to the morgue where the attendant has been murdered. With the autopsy tools and a body missing, Dr Blake smells a rat.

When a travelling salesman dies in a car accident, police blame alcohol. Dr Blake concludes that the victim was not drunk and died before the crash of very unusual causes.

A delirious prisoner on death row tells Dr Lucien Blake he is innocent of the police shooting for which he is soon to hang. Dr Blake pulls out all stops to uncover the truth.

Things get very ugly in Ballarat when the Begonia Festival's head judge is found incinerated in his own glasshouse, all eyes turn to two feuding contestants.

The death of a migrant factory foreman initially looks like an industrial accident. Dr Blake digs deeper revealing a hideous string of crimes and the ugly side of post war Australia. Meanwhile, Jean receives a marriage proposal.

In a psychiatric hospital, Nurse Violet is brutally stabbed. An inmate is found over her body holding a bloody knife, but Dr Lucien Blake is unsure he is really the culprit and begins an investigation.

A prospector strikes gold and later that night is found dead at the bottom of his mine shaft after showing off the nugget in the pub. The location of the murder triggers distressing war memories for Doctor Blake.

The suicide of the local hospital’s first female doctor shocks the community. Dr Blake suspects foul play and sets out to find the murderer amongst the staff and board of the hospital.

Meanwhile, another letter from Singapore arrives for Lucien. It takes him days to work up the courage to open it. His reaction to the news about his missing wife and daughter shocks Jean, Mattie and Danny.