A young woman's naked body is found in the undergrowth of Holland Park, London. Gagged, with her wrists and ankles bound, she has been posed, almost like a statue, kneeling as if in prayer - or begging for mercy. Stuffed into the woman's mouth is a wad of paper. On the paper is a verse by a Victorian poet, renowned for his sadomasochistic tendencies. Progress on the investigation is frustratingly slow, until a link is made to another murder that occurred exactly a year earlier