A masterly exploration of an isolated and beleaguered community coping with the evil and disruption of murder, based on PD James's bestselling novel. The story is set in St Anselm's, an Anglican theological college on a desolate stretch of the British coastline. When the body of one of the students is found on the shore smothered by a fall of sand, his wealthy father demands that Scotland Yard should re-examine the verdict of accidental death. Commander Dalgliesh spent time at St Anselm's as a boy and so agrees to pay a visit. Instead of a nostalgic return to old haunts and straightforward examination of the evidence given at the inquest, he finds himself embroiled in one of the most horrific and puzzling cases of his career. Other visitors come to the college on the weekend of his arrival, not all with benign intent. One of them will not leave alive.