Following a fraught dinner with his ex-wife and daughter, DI Jim Meldrum escapes early to drown the experience. Next morning, he wakes in a bedroom in the Hamilton, one of the smartest hotels in Edinburgh, with aching ribs, bruised knuckles and no idea how he got there. A strange woman comes out of the bathroom, gets dressed and leaves, without explaining who she is or how they came to share a bed. Later that day, the body of a man beaten to death is discovered in the hotel room next to the one in which Meldrum woke up. The victim is identified as James Philipson, owner of an exclusive escort agency of high class call girls. While Meldrum investigates the agency's client list, he is also privately searching for the woman in the hotel bedroom. Tormented by doubts about what may have happened during the hours he can't remember on the night of the murder, Meldrum conducts his search for the truth with