Lynley and Havers investigate the death of Hatham Kureshi in the seaside village of Balford-le-nez. He was to marry Shala Malik, the daughter of a prominent businessman. The marriage was an arranged one but it turns out she was having an affair with a local man, Theo Shaw. She is also pregnant. Things are not going well in the Malik family and Shala's older brother Muneer is a particularly nasty character. There is also much tension in the community owing to what some claim was a previous incident where the police supposedly covered up the murder of a 16-year old Asian boy. When the police learn that Hatham was also gay, it adds a whole new angle to their investigation.