Steven Parnell, who was accused of murdering a number young girls the previous summer, is killed while in prison awaiting trial. Morse had not been involved in the case as he was on leave during most of that investigation. What piques Morse's interest is that one of the victims, Karen Anderson, was never found and it is assumed that her body was dumped in a nearby lake but Parnell confessed to his priest on his deathbed that he wasn't responsible for that particular murder. When one of the witnesses in the case, George Daly, is murdered, Morse and Lewis try to find some connection to Anderson's disappearance. They also wonder why Anderson's camera - she was an avid photographer - wasn't found. What they come across is a group of middle-aged men whose hobby is taking so-called glamour photos
连环杀手在狱中和他人冲突致死，死刑前一段时间曾向神父忏悔杀死4人，而否认了之前认罪（后知是被暴力执法）的五个受害者的最后一个女孩，女孩的尸体也从未被找到，泰晤士警局希望结案，但是主角Morse一如既往感觉蹊跷，于是开始挖掘真相。
调查过程中，之前的一个证人园丁也莫名被枪杀，当初就是他发现的失踪女孩的包，他隐瞒了另外找到的相机，还有里面的底片，原来小团体（医生、博士迈顿、哈丁）拥有共同癖好，拍摄类似裸体色情照片，而女孩就是模特。那日拍摄结束后迈顿企图在森林里强奸女孩，被她反杀，男朋友为其掩埋尸体并将女孩的物品抛弃至异地，园丁因此捡到而进行勒索。
女孩在少年时期杀死父亲，有暴力倾向，后偶然在加油站被园丁发现后又将其杀害，一直和男友隐姓埋名生活在森林中，希望能走出阴影，最后在和Lewis和Morse的纠缠中走火而亡，悲剧收尾
有点ENDEAVOUR的意思了，精彩