Journalism student Jamie Marshall falls to his death from the roof of a derelict college building after posting an angry online rant about extortionate tuition fees and suicide is suspected. But Vera learns that somebody had assaulted him days before his death and his friend Lucy recalls hearing him argue with an older man. Furthermore he was hoping to sell a story that would "ruffle feathers" to a local newspaper. Children's entertainer Ian Holland, who bears a bitter grudge against Jamie's long-estranged father, enters the frame but reticent fellow student Rory Marston and his glib lawyer father Alan also have something to hide. Vera must establish whether Jamie's murder was an act of revenge or to prevent him from exposing a high profile fraud.
—don @ minifie-1