Morse and Lewis investigate the death of Dr. Julian Dear, a senior fellow at an Oxford college. Dear was to participate in a debate on the evening of his death, where he was headed when attacked, suffered a fatal heart attack during what appeared to be a mugging. The College's Master, Matthew Copley-Barnes comes upon a young man leaning over the body of Dear, and the young man pushes the Master aside in his escape. Morse soon learns that Copley-Barnes has been receiving strange packages, and also that the College has large investments in Corby International, a major bio-agricultural/chemical firm. These facts and the interest of a well-known journalist, Sylvie Maxton, writing an article about the Master leads Morse to a complex cover up of scientific information as well as the discovery of a long-hidden tragedy.