Cleaner Luke Sumner's body is discovered close to his flat in Newcastle, but pathology concludes that the killing blow could have occurred several hours before he succumbed to his injuries, prompting Vera to piece together the victim's final hours in order to investigate his murder.

Primary school teacher Lizzy Swann is found dead at the bottom of a cliffside coastal walkway, but what appears at first to be a terrible accident, quickly becomes a murder investigation as Vera discovers evidence the body has been tampered with. Interviews with those who knew Lizzy paint a troubling picture of a guarded and paranoid woman who seemed to be burning bridges with friends and family alike in the days leading up to her death.

Vera attends to the body of an ex-soldier who ended up on the streets and finds that events in his past and the present made for a deadly future.