A lesbian in the 1800s who keeps a detailed account of her life written in coded diaries attempts to live independently while juggling an affair with a married woman.

When Julie Bottomley discovers her husband of 10 years has been sleeping with her sister, her first instinct is to kill him. However, rather than risk life imprisonment herself, she devises a better plan to get revenge on Ian by faking her own death and framing him for murder. But can she resist the temptation to let her jailed husband know just how "Dead Clever" she's been?

Follows the staff and patients of a Yorkshire cottage hospital in the 60s, embroiled in tangled love lives and bitter power struggles.

Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.