A weekend break in the Kent countryside for Detective-Sergeant Jane Perry and her new boyfriend, Adrian, is disrupted when a nearby disused aircraft hangar goes up in flames. Once the inferno has died down, the charred remains of a well-known local vagrant, Old Mary, are revealed. The death is written off as an accident but Jane's instincts tell her that something has been overlooked. She delves deeper and soon stumbles upon another corpse. Further investigation throws up traces of blackmail, illegal drug dealing and theft and no one seems free from suspicion - not even Adrian...