On the eve of his retirement surgeon Dan Marsden is shot dead and his daughters Karen and Mira taken. His widow Laura tells Vera that Mira is an Iraqi war orphan on whom Dan operated before the couple adopted her. An iconic picture of her was taken by war photographer Jonah Regan, whom Vera visits and learns that Jonah had tried to adopt Mira but failed, due to the unstable behaviour that had caused his wife to leave him.