 London s Dupayne Museum is in danger of closing since one of the trustees feels that the money expended on preserving the past could be better spent addressing the problems of living people. One of the museum s collections concerns murders committed between the world wars. When a killing that reflects one of the cases on display occurs, history seems to be repeating itself. Adam Dalgleish is assigned the case, due to the involvement of someone in a "sensitive" government position. Adam juggles a romance with sleuthing as the deaths continue.