Playboy Michael Gifford has been found strangled in his car, and the only clues to the murder are his diary and a car park ticket.

When an American tourist is found dead of a heart attack in the posh Randolph Hotel and an irreplaceable piece of ancient jewelry is missing, Inspector Morse begins an investigation.

Sergeant Lewis gets to display his cricketing skills as a sub with the Clarets XI old boys' team when they gather for their annual match at Oxford, but Morse is called in when one of the team is murdered.

Bailey, Thornton and Cryer were eighties entrepreneurs until it was found that they had stolen millions of pounds from their investors. All three are serving sentences in the same prison where Cryer is found dead in his cell. It looks like a heart attack but the pathologist's report quickly points to murder. Morse and Lewis go behind bars to investigate but must tread carefully with the prison governor.