In the summer of 1966, the Northumbrian police come under increasing media scrutiny, as Sunderland prepares to host a World Cup match involving the USSR, while campaigners protest against the proposed landing of the Polaris nuclear submarine at Jarrow docks. When an academic is found dead after a CND rally, Gently and Bacchus are dispatched to Durham University to investigate his background - and find themselves in the midst of a wave of social and sexual rebellion.