维密斯拉克斯是一只作恶不断的妖龙，整个王国在它的骚扰之下简直是没有过一天安宁的日子。懦弱的国王为了保住自己的国家，竟然答应妖龙每个月向它献祭一名纯洁的少女，国王的决定让生活在这个国家里的每一个人心中都充满了愤怒和恐慌。
尤尔瑞奇（拉尔夫·理查德森 Ralph Richardson 饰）是一位法力高强的巫师，人们找到了他，希望委托他来对抗邪恶的妖龙。然而，尤尔瑞奇的年龄实在是太大了，于是，大家又将重获自由的希望放在了尤尔瑞奇的徒弟盖伦（彼特·麦尼科 Peter MacNicol 饰）的身上。就这样，盖伦踏上了充满了危险的旅程，他必须赶在下一任祭品牺牲之前打败妖龙，因为下一个祭品，正是这个国家的公主。
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.
