The murder of a young woman. A cryptic 'seventeenth-century' love poem. And a photograph of a mystery grey-haired man. More than enough to set Chief Inspector E. Morse on the trail of a killer. And it's a trail that leads him to Lonsdale College, where the contest between Julian Storrs and Dr Denis Cornford for the coveted position of Master is hotting up. But then Morse faces a greater, far more personal crisis.