The police investigate the murder of Peter Rooker, a press photographer who was killed in an alley way. Rooker had been a successful war photographer in Bosnia but in recent years had been trying his hand at being a paparazzo. Rooker was also selling his photos to Melissa Booth, the editor of a major tabloid newspaper and his one time lover, now married to Eddie Price a very powerful business man. When the police determine that they were having an affair, Price becomes their principal suspect but he has a solid alibi for the time of Rooker's murder. Lynley's wife provides him with a psychological profile of the killer and he realizes the case revolves around Rooker's ward, Nina Delic. Tragedy, however, results.