When the body of a man killed in a motor accident is identified as that of a man who allegedly died two years previously, DS Alistair MacRae is convinced that the earlier body is that of the son of a white collar criminal, who disappeared at around the same time. When the man who identified the body two years earlier as that of his son and the doctor who certified that the body had died of natural causes are both murdered, MacRae is sure that he knows who the killer is. But DCI Ian Forsyth demolishes his arguments and is then able to arrive at the correct solution to the mystery by he use of logical deduction.