When Elizabeth Glendinning QC dies of a sudden heart attack while making a desperate phone call to the police, her colleagues and family are devastated, and mystified. What was she doing in east London at the time of her death, and what was she trying to tell Inspector Cartwright in her last phone call? After her funeral, her son Nicholas, a former colleague, Anselm, who knew Elizabeth at the Bar before he became a monk, and Inspector Cartwright all receive packages from Elizabeth, pertaining to one particular case from years before: R v. Spendle; plus newspaper cuttings relating to the accidental drowning of a young man, Teddy Jones and the son of the principal prosecution witness in that case, George Jones. Why is Elizabeth still following this case? And what does she want each of them to do with the information she has sent them?