A professional criminologist, Rosalind works with a cranky Private Investigator named McBride-a long-time association that has led her from one sordid foray to another in the world of crime. Her passionate escape is theatre and her latest venture is with an ad hoc company of out-of-work actors putting on a production of Hamlet. Ros finds her work on Shakespeare's language to be a fabulous distraction until the uncanny parallels between life and art bring her face to face with murder.