When Penzance bookseller Matthew Glyn is found murdered Wycliffe uncovers a far from happy family situation. One of his brothers, Alfred, is a recluse who has not spoken to him for years, whilst another brother, Maurice, was involved in a dispute over ancestral land with the dead man. Their sister Sara cannot be trusted to tell the truth and Matthew’s wife disappeared years earlier in apparently mysterious circumstances. And then another member of the family is killed. . .