In the closing episode of the fourth series of VERA, DCI Vera Stanhope investigates the death of businessman John Searwood, who was found floating under the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Chief Investigator Owen Preece uncovers that John's business manager has been running a booze scam and John was no longer sleeping in the family home. Vera unpeels all the secrets hidden behind John's veneer of respectability to discover that his downfall in fact delves back to a tragic incident years before.