St Ives in summer hides its shadows well. And as the season gets underway, Chief Inspector Louis Peppiatt is handed a cold case: the disappearance of a local farmer over thirty years ago. Among his first stops is Merrin McKenzie, connected to the troubled family and to Peppiatt through a previous investigation. But who's still hiding the truth decades later?

As Peppiatt and Merrin follow the faint threads of the past, they uncover shocking secrets and betrayals that expose the darker undercurrents of their seemingly peaceful Cornish town.