When the managing director of a respectable firm, Wainwright Enterprises, dies in suspicious circumstances, his last will and testament throws the business and family into turmoil. Not only was he far, far richer than anyone had imagined, but, to the horror of his relatives, he has left the bulk of his estate to his nephew, Alex.

When Alex's wife Sally turns her sharp mind to the finances of the family firm she exposes startling irregularities. She doesn't want the police involved - but then the firm's accountant is brutally murdered and DCI Andrew Fenwick is called in. His investigations reveal a web of corruption reaching to the highest levels of the local community. As Fenwick closes in on the murderer, one of his children is abducted as a deadly bargaining chip. He finds his integrity stretched to breaking point as he races against the clock to prevent more killings and save his child.