Murder strikes in an Oxfordshire village at 17 Bloxham Drive. Exactly 24 hours later, while a policeman patrols outside, the resident at Number 15 is shot dead by the same gun. Investigators begin to unearth links between the neighbours of the modern estate. The murders also take Morse and Lewis into the hothouse atmosphere of the election for Master of Lonsdale College, over which the smooth and odious retiring master, Sir Clixby Bream, presides.