Gripped in a midlife crisis, government minister Sir Paul Berowne is the very portrait of a man in hell. His first wife is dead and his second wife is conducting a very public affair with a society doctor. His brother Hugo is dead too, a victim of terrorists. He is estranged from his daughter, receiving threatening letters and a member of his staff has just died in a bizarre boating accident. It's little wonder then that Sir Paul turns to religion for comfort. But, religion brings only horror, in the form of a particularly gruesome double murder...