Little progress had been made by the Thames Valley Police since the discovery of a corpse in a North Oxford flat. The police had no weapon, no suspect, and no motive. But within days of taking over the investigation, Chief Inspector Morse and Detective Sergeant Lewis uncover startling new information about the life and death of the victim, Dr. Felix McClure, late of Woolsey College, Oxford. The trail leads to a staircase in Woolsey College and a former "Scout" there, one Edward Brooks, who disappears following the theft of a knife from the Pitt Rivers Museum. Then another body is discovered, and suddenly Morse finds himself with too many suspects, including Brooks's wife, a prostitute, and an enigmatic schoolmistress. As Morse finds himself attracted to one of the possible killers, he may be too involved for success.