Jeremy Halliday is woken by the sound of a car on the driveway of his house in South-West France. It's gendarmes come to tell him that his partner, Julia, has been found dead in her burnt-out car. When they question him, he decides not to tell them that Julia had walked out on him three days earlier which was why she was going back to England. It soon becomes a murder inquiry and, when the investigating Judge, Jules Bouchon, discovers that he has withheld information, Jeremy becomes the chief suspect. As the investigation proceeds, Jeremy is reminded of the time, five years earlier, when he was a teacher in London and one of his students accused him of sexual abuse. The sexual abuse case was resolved but the French murder investigation is making little progress until Judge Bouchon discovers that Julia received a text message on the day she was murdered from a secret lover.