When 18-year-old Rowan Edwards is found dead, DCI Ellis is called on to take over the investigation. She digs under the surface and sees that the town's parents know nothing about the lives of their children.

When Ellis investigates the vanishing of a local detective, she finds that the closed ranks of the police station are impenetrable. But soon, an extraordinary web of secrets unravels.

Ellis investigates the case of two missing honeymooners and, as intrusive internet sleuths descend, she must delve into the village's tangled past.