Taking a winter break in the Yorkshire moors, and staying at The Old Silent Inn, Superintendent Richard Jury witnesses a most perplexing murder. Fascinated by the lovely widow of the victim, and puzzled by the dangerous cloak of silence that surrounds her, Jury is sufficiently intrigued to undertake his own unofficial - and very popular - investigation and becomes convinced that there are clues to be found in a kidnapping some eight years earlier.
With the help of the lugubrious Sergeant Wiggins and the aristocratic Melrose Plant, Jury searches for the truth behind what turns out to be a triple murder. Involved with a cast of characters that includes a fiercely independent child, straight out of the pages of 'Wuthering Heights', a steamrolling rock critic, a "hot" young novelist and a legendary musician, the trio roam the country from Keighley Moor to Cornwall before solving the mystery in an electrifying climax at the Hammersmith Odeon.
