When botanist Li Nash digs up the body of recently buried English Professor, Murray Hawes, Lewis and Hathaway find themselves involved in an impossible quest. Murray was a man who was possessed with solving the riddle of Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark". They soon find out that Murray had a rivalry with his brother, who is a lecturer in Theology and Moral Philosophy. They also have to deal with interference from Michelle Marber who is an amateur detective, who believes that that the killer is local medical researcher Alex Falconer.