Pleasure is the highest good: the group who called themselves the Cyrenaics embrace the hedonistic principle until the death of one of their members from an overdose. Sobered, the group went their separate ways.

One headed for Canada, another disappeared and a third was believed to have committed suicide - at least until his body turns up in the wreck of a car swept up on the Solway mud flats. The murky relationships among the Cyrenaics, revived when they start returning from a party, bring more suffering and death.

DI Marjory Fleming faces obstruction and hostility. Can she piece together the puzzle before someone else dies?