DCI Vera Stanhope and DS Joe Ashworth investigate a suspicious death in an army barracks. Although designed to look like he committed suicide, Vera quickly establishes that Staff Sgt. Dev Deverson has been murdered. Sensing a connection to a soldier killed in Afghanistan (Ollie) Vera interviews Dev's loyal comrades Vin and Budgie, and Ollie's grieving family. She establishes that there is a deeply concealed trauma at the heart of the crime, and exposes the complicated turn of events that led to an act of revenge and the death of more than one soldier.