Janine Lewis, mother of three and pregnant with her fourth child, is promoted to Detective Chief Inspector. Coming home to celebrate, she catches her husband pleasuring the au pair. Newly single, she struggles to balance her demanding new job with a hectic home life. Lewis and her team investigate the murder of a schoolteacher found at his garden allotment, sliced open like a lab rat.
On the way back to school for the first time after her maternity leave, Janine witnesses a hit and run outside her son's school. While wishing to investigate, she is at the same time summoned to view a corpse found in the river. A public appeal reveals the woman to probably be Rosa Milicz, who worked at Topcat, a lap-dancing club. Meanwhile the little girl involved in the hit-and-run dies. Richard and Shap go to Topcat where they discover that the manager of the club is James Harper, who coincidentally also owns the hit and run car.
What first looks like a straightforward suicide case soon turns much more sinister. At the funeral of the suicide victim, Charlotte Moran, her father, Frank Evans, and her husband, Dave Moran are grieving for her. Meanwhile, behind the scenes at the crematorium, John Wheeler also weeps as he prepares Charlotte's coffin for the cremator, when her husband, Dave, angrily confronts him. Two weeks later, the crematorium secretary, Mary Hunt, reports that both Dave Moran and John Wheeler have gone missing. Rumour has it that John Wheeler and Charlotte Moran were having an affair. Janine opens an investigation and forensic tests reveal that another body was cremated with Charlotte. But was it Dave Moran or John Wheeler? Janine tells the team they have a murderer and a victim, but which is which?
DI Mayne goes under cover as a prisoner to investigate the suspicious death of an inmate who had been awaiting the outcome of an appeal against a murder conviction. He soon discovers that several inmates have a connection with the original murder victim. Janine frets when Michael is arrested following a car crash.
DCI Lewis and the team deal with the murder of a veterinary surgeon and discover that the victim had been planning to leave her husband for her lover, but the investigation leads to the uncovering of some difficult relationships within the tight-knit farming community. DS Butchers has a difficult appraisal with DI Mayne.
DCI Lewis leads an investigation into the murder of a private investigator. The team investigate the detective agency and discover that the dead man had been working on behalf of a convicted criminal, but DS Shap appears to be pursuing his own agenda. Janine takes some time off work to deal with Tom, who has been playing truant.