After Dr. April Latimer goes missing in 1950s Dublin, her friend Phoebe Griffin enlists the aid of her brilliant recovering-alcoholic father, Quirke, and Detective Inspector Hackett, who follow April's trail through the darker byways of the city.

On a sweltering summer afternoon, newspaper tycoon Richard Jewell - known to his many enemies as Diamond Dick - is discovered with his head blown off by a shotgun blast. But is it suicide or murder? Detective Inspector Hackett calls in his old friend Quirke, who has unusual access to Dublin's elite, for help. As a record heat wave envelops the city, the secret deals underpinning Diamond Dick's empire begin to be revealed.

"Perhaps Quirke has been down among the dead too long. Lately the Irish pathologist has suffered hallucinations and blackouts, and he fears the cause is a brain tumor. A specialist diagnoses an old head injury caused by a savage beating; all that's needed, the doctor declares, is an extended rest. But Quirke, ever intent on finding his place among the living, is not about to retire. One night during a June heat wave, a car crashes into a tree in central...

Detective Inspector Hackett and his occasional partner Quirke investigate the suicide of a prominent Irish businessman, but when a second death occurs, Hackett and Quirke uncover evidence of a secret that threatens to destroy other members of Dublin's elite.