Carl Finch is a desperate man. Cut out of his stepfather's will, he is heavily in debt and unless he can persuade his stepsister Hattie to bail him out, he'll be in even more trouble. Hattie's husband Guy has never liked Carl and wants his wife's inheritance for his own use, so Hattie agrees to meet Carl in secret to discuss his predicament. Little does she realise that when she arrives at their meeting point in Crooked Man Wood she'll find Carl's dead body. As Superintendent Ian Carter and Inspector Jess Campbell dig deeper into the case, a cover-up is exposed and bitter resentment rises to the surface to reveal a killer.