Though it is thirty years since Margaret Dodds was tried and executed for the brutal murder of her second husband, many troubling questions raised during the trial are still left unanswered. Why would she choose to commit the crime in such a way that the finger of suspicion would almost inevitably point at her? Why did she insist, even when all hope of reprieve had gone, that she was not guilty? Her daughter, an influential lawyer, wants her name cleared. The investigating officer, now a powerful politician with a seat in the House of Lords, is determined to ensure that the verdict stands. And Chief Inspector Charlie Woodend, charged with stripping away three decades of lies and deceit, finds that - once again - his superiors have presented him with a poisoned chalice.