Tom Olsen, ex-Governor of Wisconsin, has just arrived at the American Embassy in London as the new Ambassador to Great Britain. Named to this position by the recently elected President, this assignment is a bitter disappointment. As the President’s rival in the recent presidential race, he expected to be the President himself, and at the least, named as the VP running mate. Tom is accompanied by his wife Elaine and daughter Luna. Tom and Elaine’s relationship is strained by his underhanded Chicago-style politics and Elaine’s dark past. Shortly after their arrival to their new London residence at the Winfield House, a gruesome murder takes place. The son of Baroness Royall, the opposition party leader in the House of Lords, was found torn to pieces on the lawn of the Queens Church of the Savoy.
Quentin Clark, a Scotland Yard detective from the Specialists Protection branch (SO1) and Agent Sarah Duncan from the London office of the U.S. Secret Service arrive at the bloody crime scene. The detective in charge of the investigation, Bailey Winthrop, Quentin’s nemesis, wonders why the Prime Minister’s protection office is interested in this crime and is uncooperative with Quentin’s prodding questions. Bailey is even more disobliging to the young and brash Secret Service agent. Quentin’s interest in the case is from a call the day before from the Baroness concerned about her missing son. Not unusual, Quentin has often saved the Baroness’ reputation by bailing out her rowdy socialite son. From their first look at the gruesome evidence, it is clear that there is something unusual, something sinister about this killing. The body is unidentifiable; the finger tips have been bitten off.
Quentin and Sarah meet up with Marley Figgen at the Scotland Yard morgue who shows them the gruesome remains delivered from the crime scene. Marley’s eccentric autopsy style disturbs Sarah but at the same time creates an attraction between them. The autopsy results indicate the murder may not have been by a human, but not necessarily by an animal. Back in Quentin’s office, he and Sarah are going over all of the evidence, including surveillance videos of the surrounding streets that show a young man matching the victim’s description leaving a pub with a young lady. Rufus Jamieson, Quentin’s new young assistant, brings in his latest research on the crime. Quentin is impressed with the quality of Rufus’ work and by his positive and upbeat nature, in contrast to his own lazy and troubled son. Rufus takes over the computer and isolates a clear picture of the young lady. Sarah immediately identifies her as the Ambassador’s daughter, Luna. Rufus shows them a list of similar murders. There are only a few such recent cases, one being an unsolved murder in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham, and an equally gruesome murder in Wisconsin tagged the Beast of Bray road. Rufus is surprised to see that one victim of a very old case was Quentin’s grandfather, a decorated Scotland Yard detective and it too was in the Dagenham area.
Elaine wakes up at noon in her usual hung-over and ill-tempered state much to the disgust of Tom. Rumors of the Ambassador’s wife’s drinking habits and bizarre “morning-afters” have already circulated throughout London’s high society. Tom and Elaine have their normal morning quarrel heightened by the fact Elaine has her first formal luncheon with the wives of the most influential political and financial moguls of London. Tom will not stand for any embarrassing faux pas that will upset his political ambitions. She is meeting with Penny Moore, wife of Clive Moore, the Leader of the House of Commons, Molly Stone, wife of Skylar Stone, CEO of one of London’s largest stock trading institutions, and Elizabeth “Liz” Chisom, wife of Niles Chisom, the best known plastic surgeon in London.
The elite wives are waiting for Elaine at the OXO Tower Wharf restaurant. Not surprised by her tardiness, their vicious gossiping is suddenly silenced by Elaine’s elegant and graceful entrance. Elaine is magnificently dressed and her fit and youthful appearance is not what the ladies expected for someone of her age and with her reputation. The conversation is polite but tense and Elaine stays ahead of any attempt by these pretentious parasites of the rich and famous to disrespect her or the Ambassador.
Meanwhile Quentin and Sarah are interviewing clientele at the pub where Luna was seen leaving the night of the murder. Sarah is shocked to see Quentin harshly interrogating one particular patron. Quentin shows him a photograph of the Baroness’ son and gets him to identify him as the person seen leaving with Luna. Quentin then takes the young man by the collar and throws him out of the pub. Sarah is surprised to learn that the young man is Quentin’s son.
Elaine’s luncheon is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Luna and a lunch date. As Luna and her date settle in at their table, Bailey Winthrop shows up with a couple of “Bobbies” and begins to interrogate Luna on her whereabouts on the night of the murder. Under the criticism and gaze of the elite wives, Elaine goes over to intercede. Elaine begins to make a scene when Quentin and Sarah arrive. Bailey and Quentin argue over jurisdiction. Elaine chastises Agent Duncan, as a member of the Ambassador’s security team, for not warning her about the investigation. The scene gets more chaotic as everyone argues until Luna intervenes and admits that she left the pub with a young man but did not know who he was or his name. She claims he tried to molest her and she ran off and left him in the London fog. Elaine backs her up with an alibi that she was home early that night. Elaine and Luna leave in a huff, leaving the London elite more fodder for gossip and more headlines for the tabloids.
Quentin and Sarah are escorting a solemn Baroness Royall and her husband, Sir Blake Royall down a corridor leading to the Scotland Yard morgue. They enter and approach Marley, uncharacteristically dressed in a formal suit, standing by a body covered with a white sheet. Marley reveals a beautifully reconstructed corpse, with barely a mark. Sir Royall is distraught; Baroness nods in acknowledgement that the corpse is indeed their son. Marley consoles Sir Blake as the Baroness pulls Quentin aside and intensely grills him about rumors that the Ambassador’s daughter is implicated in the case and insists that she must be considered a serious suspect. She asks him to delay giving any information to the press until she can hold a formal, politically advantageous press conference. Quentin informs the Baroness that he will be increasing her protection until they resolve the case starting with posting a Bobbie outside her home. She insists on two Bobbies and then takes Sir Blake by the arm and leaves.
Elaine’s curt morning greeting is ignored by Tom as she walks into the Ambassador’s private breakfast alcove. She gets a cup of coffee and sits down to her breakfast. Tom finally acknowledges her by throwing her the morning tabloid with a bold headline and picture of her encounter at the restaurant. They argue over what happened as Elaine tries to convince him he’s in way over his head and that these women are all about staying at the top of the British upper class. She warns him they will pursue their desires at any cost, which Tom admits that at least he has something in common with them. He informs her that she needs to make sure his Ambassador’s welcome ball she is coordinating goes off without a hitch, unlike her first luncheon. Tom is particularly more dour than usual this morning as noted by Elaine. He was notified that the President has decided to use his welcome ball as a venue for meeting the Prime Minister. Tom is convinced that the President is coming only to steal the spotlight from him. He will make sure that this will not be the case, no matter what he has to do. Luna arrives late as usual for breakfast and the daily argument ensues with Tom stomping out in anger on queue.
Penny and Clive Moore are at home having their afternoon tea. Clive is reading the headlines about the new American Ambassador’s wife’s restaurant encounter with Scotland Yard in several tabloids. Clive questions Penny about Elaine. Clive listens with curiosity as Penny seems disturbed by her impressions of Elaine. She saw her as almost freakishly fit and toned for her age, moved gracefully, almost creature-like. Something about her eyes caused Penny not to dwell too long at her gaze in order to avoid getting a chill up her spine. But she was drawn to her strength, and her quick resolve to defend her husband and daughter in total disregard to political correctness. Clive dismisses Penny’s eerie impressions and welcomes the timing of Elaine’s tabloid headlines because it takes the spotlight off of the local politics and the pressure developing from the opposition party to bring up a confidence vote against the Prime Minister. But with the Baroness’ son’s murder, Clive is almost certain Baroness Royall will play-up the sympathy card to bolster the momentum for a vote to bring his coalition party down.
Molly and Skylar Stone arrive at the Royall’s residence in a quiet Barking and Dagenham neighborhood. After being questioned by the two Bobbies standing guard at their gate, they are allowed to go in and are met by the Royall’s butler. The butler escorts them into the drawing room where the Baroness immediately takes Skylar by the arm and pulls him aside. Molly, put off by the slight, goes over to console Sir Blake. The Baroness confides to Skylar that her son’s murder is unfortunate but also timely and can be used to their political advantage. She is happy to see that the Ambassador’s wife is taking up the headlines and giving them time to react. Skylar, momentarily disturbed by her cold reaction to her son’s death, offers to draft a statement for her press conference.
Liz Chisom is checking out her perfect “plastic” body as she dresses for a workout in the locker room of London’s premier fitness center. Her phone rings; her husband Niles tells her he will be home late, his appointments are running over again. He hangs up and meets a beautiful young patient and escorts her into his office. Liz, disappointed once again, is driven into the arms of her fitness trainer.
The next morning, Sarah arrives at work to find Quentin and Rufus in front of a TV in Quentin’s office. The Baroness Royall is putting on quite a show at her press conference. She is making sure that even though she is grieving over the loss of her beloved son, she will continue to work for her constituents and move forward with trying to force a no confidence vote in Parliament. Quentin knows the Baroness’ too well and doesn’t by her sympathy act. The clincher comes when she indirectly implicates the new Ambassador’s daughter, Luna, as a suspect in her son’s murder. Quentin is livid and insists that they start working immediately to clear Luna of any wrong doing before the tabloids blow it out of proportion. Sarah saves the day by pulling out of her purse, a plastic bag with Luna’s drinking glass from the OXO lunch date the previous day. They now have a source of DNA from Luna that will exonerate her from the crime scene. Sarah takes the glass down to the morgue where Marley can analyze it.
As Sarah watches, Marley processes the DNA but realizes that he must have contaminated it with the earlier samples of the canine hair that Sarah had brought in earlier from the crime scene. But Sarah has another idea to identify the source of the canine hair by checking the nearby animal shelter for any dogs that might have been brought in since the night of the murder.
Meanwhile, the Baroness and Sir Royall are arguing over the venue for their son’s funeral. Sir Royall is disappointed that they are not having a private ceremony for the family. She considers them just a bunch of parasites spending their fortune. He reminds her that it is his fortune. Detective Winthrop shows up and Sir Royall retires for the night. The Baroness and Winthrop discuss the strategy to get the Ambassador to switch from forging an alliance with the coalition parties to the Baroness’ opposition party. This may involve blackmailing the Ambassador with his daughter’s implication in her son’s murder.
Marley and Sarah arrive at the shelter and begin taking samples of a rather large group of dogs that were brought in to the animal shelter since the murder. They are interrupted by the growl of a particularly ferocious and large dog in the back of the kennel. As Marley and Sarah slowly try to back their way out of the kennel, the dog lunges at them, knocking over Sarah as it leaps out through the kennel door and out of the shelter. Marley helps Sarah up and finds that she has been bitten on the arm by the dog.
That evening, the Baroness arrives at the Ambassador’s residence. She tries to persuade Ambassador Olsen on the advantages of forming an alliance with the opposition party. She tempts him with the thought of them both becoming the leaders of their countries and ultimately, of the free world. He is also persuaded by her sexual advances. Unbeknownst to them, the Ambassador’s wife, Elaine is eavesdropping outside the room. Elaine is momentarily distracted by the arrival of the large feral dog from the animal shelter outside their residence.
The next day Sarah and Marley are in attendance at the Baroness’s son’s funeral. With a backdrop of dreary, rainy weather, and a sea of black umbrellas, the Baroness puts on an impressive show of grief and sorrow. Quentin, in charge of her protection for the event, is not impressed. He is even less impressed with Detective Winthrop kissing up to the Baroness during the ceremony. As everyone is leaving after the graveside service, Marley drops a bombshell on Sarah by revealing to her that the DNA samples were not contaminated and that the Ambassador’s daughter’s DNA appears to show that Luna’s DNA is actually part canine.
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