Derby Day at Epson Downs. A multitude of people crowd to watch the races, dukes and dustmen, bishops and beggars, privileged ladies and prostitutes. The gamut of Victorian society and a hotbed for crime and crooks of all kinds.With the country a-flutter in the run-up to this national occasion, events reach a fever pitch when a disembodied head is discovered on a passenger train at Crewe; the first in a murky course of events that takes in murder, fraud and race-fixing. Detective Inspector Robert Colbeck and his assistant are assigned to the case and are soon snarled up in web of skulduggery stretching across the country. Soon, they are forced to ask themselves: just how much is someone prepared to hazard in order to win?