Based on PD James's best-selling novel, The Murder Room is set on the edge of Hampstead Heath in London at the Dupayne Museum. The Dupayne is a family-run private museum housing a collection devoted to Britain between the wars. Its most popular attraction is The Murder Room, which features memorabilia of the period's most gruesome real life murders. The founder's death has left the museum's future in doubt. His will stipulates that all three of his heirs must agree to renew its charter. When the noncompliant heir dies in a suspicious fire, Commander Dalgliesh (Martin Shaw) is called to handle the highly sensitive investigation. The circumstances of the death bear an unsettling similarity to one of the Murder Room's most notorious cases. The complicated case consumes most of Dalgliesh's time, and my scuttle his relationship with Emma before it's properly begun.