Time has moved on for Quirke, the world-weary pathologist first ecountered in Christine Falls. It is the middle of the 1950s, that low, dishonourable decade. A woman he loved has died, a man he once admired is dying, while the daugther he for so long denied is still finding it hard to accept him as her father. When an old acquaintance approaches him about his wife´s apparent suicide. Quirke recognises trouble but, as always, trouble is something he cannot resist.