When a man dumps a body on a beach in full view of onlookers, the investigation that follows throws up a number of dark twists for DCI Henry Johnstone.January 5, 1930. On a cold, grey winter morning, a mysterious man walks along Bournemouth beach carrying a bundle in his arms. He lays it carefully on the shoreline and calmly walks away. The man has dumped a body.

The dead young woman is Faun Moran, a wildchild in her twenties wearing a sparkling cocktail gown. But Faun was supposedly killed in a car crash after leaving a party attended by other wealthy bright young things the previous autumn. So who was the young woman in the car, and where has Faun Moran been all this time?

Still recovering from the trauma of his last case, DCI Henry Johnstone returns to work to solve this baffling mystery. But as he and DS Mickey Hitchens investigate, the path to the truth is darker and twistier than they could ever have imagined.