Serrailler is enjoying a well-earned rest on a sedate Scottish island but his sabbatical is rudely interrupted when he is called back to Lafferton Two prostitutes in the area have disappeared their bodies are subsequently discovered and both women have been strangled Is the killer a disturbed individual with a pathological hatred of prostitutes, as was felt to be the case with the most famous serial killer of all, Jack the Ripper? There is, however, more to the town of Lafferton then its red light district The Cathedral close holds a very different position in the social strata, but has its own problems, notably a particularly acrimonious series of ecclesiastical squabbles As Serrailler desperately tries to track down a vicious murderer, he is all too aware that the clock is ticking Then a piece of luck moves events along in a very surprising fashion