An American woman tracing her family appears in a graveyard. The only person she meets is the gravedigger. Next time she's seen she is found dead by a bunch of squaddies. Dalziel comes to investigate and bumps into another old flame, Jenny Ettrick. Later, one of the squaddies kills himself after being harassed by his sergeant As Dalziel starts investigating, they find that the victim may have drunk in the squaddies bar. Another squaddie turns up dead and while investigating that murder they find out that there might be a case of mistaken identity