Wycliffe's home overlooks a peaceful West Country estuary
- but even here he can't get away from crime. When he is taking a Sunday morning walk along the shore he comes across a service revolver with one chamber recently fired. In recent years Wycliffe has often regretted the fact that his rank cuts him off from the early stages of an investigation but here he is in at the very start. The case takes Wycliffe into the world of art robberies & crooked dealers to a suicide which may be a murder & a hunt for a missing yacht. As the investigation escalates Wycliffe begins to wonder exactly where the clues are leading...