De uty Assistant Commissioner Charlie Hillian is killed on the night of his retirement arty. Hillian was at one time a senior officer in Oxford and was in fact Morse's boss. He was also writing a book about his most memorable cases, including one about the unsolved death of an 8-year-old girl some 18 years ago. The sus ect in that case, Frederick Red ath, was at Hillian's house the day he died and that cha ter from the manuscri t is missing. There are other sus ects however, including Hillian's ghost writer who will now receive all of the book's royalties; a handyman who was working on the ro erty; and Red ath's daughter, who knew the little girl who was killed all those years before. Morse comes into conflict with with a colleague DCI Dawson, who was one of Hillian's rotégés, as they again look into the little girl's death