Nikki's archaeologist friend Patrick is excited when a woman's body,apparently a thousand years old,is unearthed on a Yorkshire moor. However dental records show she is a more recent murder victim and Leo,who once worked in the area,believes she is Jodie Fisher,who went missing in 1985. Three other girls were murdered and the killer,Karl Bentley,caught and jailed. Leo,unsuccessful in his efforts with Janet to make a baby and applying to adopt,reencounters Jodie's mother,old flame Carol,before visiting Bentley,who creepily says that his actions were 'out of love'. Then another woman is killed.

Janet travels to Yorkshire with Leo where she identifies the murder of the fresh victim,Kelly Summers,as being a copycat of the Bentley killings,suggesting that Bentley had an accomplice still at large. This is confirmed when Sonia Hardwick,the investigating officer,finds a letter to Bentley from a boyfriend in the original file. A television crew visits the Fosters' farm house,where Carol's husband Bill snaps,attacking a journalist. He is arrested and interviewed by Sonia regarding his relationship with Karl Bentley. Between them Sonia and Leo deduce that Bentley had a male lover responsible for the unsolved murders and that that man is Bill Fisher. They are only partly right. Harry,meanwhile,has to baby-sit the teenage son of an irresponsible old college friend.

Kevin McDowd, a boy with behavioural problems, is restrained from escaping Kingscote Bows, his residential care home whilst, a few miles away, his mother Jackie dies in a car crash, having ingested an excess of anti-depressant pills. Nikki believes she was unlawfully killed and evidence points to Kevin being the culprit. Kevin goes on the run with fellow resident Serena, who, to the horror of care assistant Tilly Maddox, is being sexually abused by deputy manager Conor Flannery, but they are cornered by the police with unfortunate results.

Examining Kevin's corpse Nikki is puzzled by stun marks on the body and the fact that Jackie had set up a camera in his room. Thomas is also curious regarding two other mysterious deaths, one at Kingscote Bows, the other at the Pleasant Manor care home, where both were regularly visited by Dr Kahari. When Serena goes missing and Tilly is found dead after threatening to expose Flannery Clarissa books herself into Pleasant Manor to investigate herself,. She unmasks the killers but needs to be rescued by Jack when she puts herself I danger.