在生日宴会上，布莱斯顿（布莱恩·邦赛尔 Brian Bonsall 饰）拥有了他人生中的第一张空白支票。小小年纪的他便懂得，只有拥有了金钱，在家中才拥有话语权，因此，布莱斯顿对金钱有着格外强烈的渴望和执着。 一场意外中，布莱斯顿的车被奎克利（米盖尔·弗尔 Miguel Ferrer 饰）压坏了，奎克利刚刚结束他的监狱生活没多久，但很显然，他并不准备改邪归正，这不，他正急匆匆的赶往银行，去洗白非法得来的一百万美元。布莱斯顿缠着奎克利要他赔偿，奎克利在匆忙之中开了一张空白支票给他，布莱斯顿在支票上写下了一百万美元的数额拿到银行去兑现，没想到竟然真的兑到了现金。就这样，布莱斯顿成为了一名百万富翁。
Lewis returns to Oxford after several years absence and is reluctantly assigned by his new boss, DCS Innocent, to the murder of an Oxford mathematics student who was shot while participating in a sleep study. The key-code used to access the sleep lab was assigned to a fellow maths student, Daniel Griffin, but Daniel's math tutor has provided him with an alibi. Daniel is a maladjusted young man who will soon inherit his father's automotive empire. He is disruptive and has no respect for his uncle who now heads the company. The future of the company however rests on an impending deal with Japanese investors who insist that family unity is all important at this time. When two other murder occurs, Lewis must decipher a cryptic clue left in an old case file by his former boss, Chief Inspector Morse.
