Three hot days in a row and Edinburgh is going a little crazy. Taking a short cut through a tough housing scheme, DI Jim Meldrum finds himself caught up in an ambush by a mob of twelve-year-olds. As a result, he arrives at a murder scene with a lump gouged out of his skull and mild concussion. Things aren't helped when the beautiful redheaded woman in evening dress, found stabbed to death in an upstairs bedroom, is identified as well-connected city businessman Brian Ashton. Even with a brooding headache and a bad case of double vision, Meldrum can see trouble ahead. And that's before he meets the victim's redheaded widow. Helped by local academic and crime profiler Henry Stanley, Meldrum begins to unravel the bizarre secrets surrounding more than one sudden death.