Inspector Rebus initially feels sorry for MP Gregor Jack, a rising star of the political arena. After all, it's sheer bad luck that Gregor happened to be in a brothel during a police raid. At least, it looks that way to begin with. However, when Jack's wife also seems to have disappeared, Rebus begins to suspect that someone is maliciously trying to destroy the young man for reasons only known to themselves...
In Venice, Frances Croy is working to leave the previous year behind: another novel published to little success, a scathing review she can't quite manage to forget, and, most of all, the real reason behind her self-imposed exile from London: the incident at the Savoy. Sequestered within an aging palazzo, Frankie finds comfort in the emptiness of Venice in winter, in the absence of others. And then Gilly appears.