In Mexico someone is having plastic surgery. On a London estate disgraced ex-cop Frank Brandon is found shot dead in a crack den and Anna,now an inspector,joins the hunt for the killer. Frank had a girl-friend but had recently married Julia Larson,a wealthy Danish woman for whom he has briefly worked as her chauffeur. She is evasive in interview and seemingly fearful. Evidence suggests that somebody was with Frank when he died and although only two bullets entered Frank residents heard three shots fired.Jeremy,an autistic youth,proves an enormous help as he has noted down the registration numbers of cars parked outside the murder scene that night. The drivers are Silas Roache,a big-time pusher trying to import the lethal American drug known as Drop Dead,small-time crook and customer Eddie Court and Danny Petrozzo. Roache is arrested,to the annoyance of drugs squad officer DCI Power,who had been surveying his operation.Eddie claims he left Frank alive with Danny but when Danny's vehicle is located Danny is inside and very dead.

Whilst Roache admits to shooting Frank in a panic he denies killing Danny. Middle-class drop-out and user Julian D'Anton's prints are on Danny's car though Langton considers him too small-time to be a murderer. From a photograph Anna identifies Julia's ex-husband Collingwood as an international criminal and asks Sam Power to contact the FBI for details of his crimes in America,though Julia denies all knowledge,even after her accountant,Rushton,is found dead. Anna and Langton visit Julia's homely sister Helga and her husband Damian,an Oxford professor,at their remote farm though they claim to have had little contact with Julia and either of her husbands.

Langton suspects that the reasons he lost out on a promotion to commander is affirmative action and someone resurrecting the Fitzpatrick Case. He takes on the murder of a young actress in order to resolve these questions.