Peter Devanti, a notorious TV populariser of history and former member of the college, dies after being the college's guest at High Table. The apparent cause is eating nuts despite a known allergy. However the college's Master suspects foul play. He invites Simon Harrison, a formerly brilliant biology student at the college who has ended up working in Health and Safety Executive, a job he mostly finds tiresome, to investigate the suspicious death. At the same time, Zoe Redmond, a philosophy graduate and Simon's former girlfriend, loses her job as political sketch-writer on a national newspaper and is forced to freelance. Her first job is covering the aftermath of Devanti's death, which brings her back together with both Simon, whom she left for Devanti on the eve of Simon's final undergraduate exam, and her tutor Patricia, who was also, it emerges, one of Devanti's conquests. Her re-appearance opens old wounds for Simon, who drank himself into oblivion when she left him, leaving him in no condition for a final exam, and resulting in him failing to get the first-class honours degree that would have ensured his continued academic career.