Plot

When a teenager is found dead at the foot of a tower, DS Davey Higgins believes it was a tragic suicide, but Coroner Jane Kennedy thinks there is more to the case than meets the eye.

Lawyer Jane Kennedy returns with her rebellious teen-aged daughter Beth to the seaside town of Lighthaven to take up the post of coroner. 17-year old bad boy Steve Kernan is found dead at the foot of a tower and suicide is suspected but Steve's secret, pregnant girlfriend Sophie believes there was foul play involved. The night before her possessive father had thrown Steve out of the house and the boy's own father John has violent tendencies. A broken watch and Beth's boyfriend Matt, who was Steve's best friend, help Jane and old flame D.S. Davey Higgins solve the mystery of the lad's death.—don @ minifie-1

Two teens are packing, they are planning to run away and live in a caravan. They are stopped by the girl's father, who throws the boy out of the house. At the beach, a group of kids are drinking and partying.

Cut to a tall monument by the water. A boy is dead, apparently having fallen from the top of the monument. It is the boy that the girl was running away with.

Jane Kennedy, Her Majesty's Coroner for East Devon, is awoken by her phone by her assistant Clint, and told she must go to Gora Point. She goes to let her daughter, Beth, know she's leaving, but her daughter isn't home; she's at the beach party. She orders her daughter home. The daughter's boyfriend, Matt, asks who died.

Jane meets with the police sergeant, Davey, at Gora Point about the dead young man, Steve Kernan. Based on a text, the police conclude it is a suicide. They know the exact time of death because his watch broke in the fall. The boy didn't have his phone on him.

The boy's girlfriend visits Jane and insists that it couldn't have been suicide. She doesn't give her name, and leaves.

Davey shares the postmortem report with Jane, which is consistent with the police opinion. Steve had previously been in trouble with the law. Steve's family doesn't want to meet with Davey due to Steve's police history, so Jane meets with them. Their son was rarely home during the day and they didn't see him much. The mother finds a bloody shirt in her garbage.

Matt visits Beth. He tells her he and Steve were best mates.

Davey meets with Matt. He asks Matt if he saw Steve the night he died. They were supposed to meet up, but Steve never showed. Matt says Steve was upset that night about his girlfriend, whom he didn't know.

Police found Steve's phone at the bottom of a cliff near the monument. Davey tells Jane that Steve's best friend is her daughter's boyfriend. Jane confronts Beth, who admits it. She points out her mother and grandmother were seeing boys at the same age, but Jane is protective. Beth wants to support Matt through his best mate's death.

Steve's mother confronts her husband with the bloody shirt. He abuses her, and goes to throw it out properly.

Davey suggests Jane invite Matt over for dinner. Clint suggests she could use the opportunity to ask Matt about Steve. Steve had been on antidepressants and had been in a counseling group, but had stopped the meetings and stopped taking his pills.

The girl's father consoles her by saying Steve was clearly not stable enough for a relationship with her. He is pressuring her to take a pill. She pretends to take it.

Jane is in the mortuary with Steve's body. She is theorizing out loud about the events of the night of his death, being distraught, and deciding to end it. But then she wonders why if he was simply committing suicide, why he didn't just jump off the cliff he threw his phone off instead of breaking into and climbing up the monument. She realizes he must have been meeting someone there.

Matt is over for dinner. Jane asks Matt if Steve had any enemies. Davey is also over for dinner. There is an awkward tension as Matt thinks they are a couple. It turns out they used to be, but are now simply colleagues. Unfortunately dinner is accidentally overcooked and ruined. Matt and Beth go out for fish and chips instead. They leave Jane and Davey alone, who have an awkward moment.

Matt takes Beth out on a boat. Clint visits the group counseling the Steve had attended. It turns out Steve met his girlfriend, Sophie, through the group. Jane visits Sophie's house. Steve was out of control when off his meds, but Sophie insists he was a good soul. His father was abusive to both Steve and his mother. She insists however that Steve wasn't depressed, but happy about having a life with her. She is pregnant with his child and he was looking forward to starting a family. She tells Jane how they were planning to run away that night. Jane asks if Sophie's father could have hurt Steve, and she thinks it's possible.

Jane tries to convince Davey that Steve's death wasn't suicide. Jane will talk to Steve's parents, and suggests Davey talk to Sophie's father. Her father is a court magistrate with sway, so Davey is hesitant.

Matt and Steve used to go fishing and crabbing on the boat to get away from everyone. They knew each other since they were toddlers. Matt apologizes for thinking Jane and Davey were together. Beth explains they used to be, but broke up when she saw him making out with another girl. Jane left town soon after and hasn't been back for years till now. Matt thinks that's too bad, but Beth points out she wouldn't exist if her mother hadn't moved on and met her father.

Jane is waiting by Steve's house. His father drops off the mother, but leaves. Jane presses the mother to talk about Steve's home situation, but she's afraid. She tells Jane that Steve had come home drunk that night, and his father punished him angrily, then left. She thinks that her husband did hurt her son that night.

Davey is interviewing Sophie's father. He was at an event and drank too much and had to be driven home. He has bruises on his hands, which are from fighting with Steve, but he comes up with an excuse. Davey knows he fought with Steve. He admits he fought Steve but denies killing him. The pill he tried to give his daughter was an abortion pill. Davey concludes he was too drunk to go and hurt Steve.

Jane wonders why Matt, who was Steve's best mate, wasn't at Steve's funeral. But Matt has an alibi as he was with Jane's daughter at the beach party. Matt mentions he texted with Steve earlier that night, and was supposed to meet, but didn't show. Jane tells him about Sophie and Steve's plans to run away and start a family with her. Matt says he couldn't face being at Steve's funeral.

Steve's father comes home and begins to abuse his wife for talking to Jane. Davey is there to talk to him, telling him they're reconsidering suicide as Steve's cause of death. He asks John where he was and John gets defensive and attacks Davey. His wife hits him with a kettle and Davey arrests him under suspicion of murder.

Sophie comes to Jane and asks for a present that she gave Steve that he had on him. It was her grandfather's watch. It didn't work, it was just a sentimental item. Jane realizes the police were wrong to base time of death on Steve's watch because the watch was already broken.

Matt is getting agitated about the topic of Steve. He says he was a bad friend to Steve. Davey tells Jane that Steve's father had left to go see his mistress. Jane tells Davey about the broken watch and how the time of death must be wrong. Based on Beth's information, Matt showed up to the beach party well after Steve left his house that night, and now time of death could have been earlier than thought. Beth tells them Matt has gone to Gora Point.

Matt is at the monument at Gora Point and breaks in. Jane and Davey arrive and chase after him. Matt goes to the top. Jane is afraid of heights, but does her best to handle it again. Matt crawls onto the ledge of the monument. Matt tells them Steve's death was his fault. Matt is dangerously close to the edge. He insists he "may as well" have pushed Steve off the monument. Matt slips, but Davey catches his foot and with Jane's help they drag him back over.

Matt explains the event of the night. He Steve met at the monument. Steve was drunk, and Matt was upset, feeling like Steve was abandoning him for his girlfriend Sophie. Steve insisted it wasn't true, and suggested they get wasted and have fun. They break into the monument and dare each other. Matt dares Steve to walk around the edge of the monument, but regrets it. Steve insists he isn't chicken and begins to do it. But being drunk, he staggers and falls off with a scream. Matt is haunted by the moment. Matt then cleaned up the scene, then went to the beach party with Beth, to use as an alibi. Beth is devastated at Matt using her to cover up for his involvement with Steve's death.

Jane introduces Sophie to Steve's mother. Beth is swearing off men as a result. Steve's mother has finally kicked out her abusive husband. Jane takes her daughter out for commiseration.

The next morning Jane enter Coroner's Court. Her verdict for the death of Steve Kernan is Accidental Death.