Thomas Maitland has returned to Dorset. After an interlude in Venice with an Italian architect, he's seen a ruined chapel by the sea for sale and he imagines a new life with his dog and his woman -- without the death and distress of his old police job. But after a tragic encounter with the land owner whose daughter is selling the property, two people are dead and Thomas is dragged back into investigation.

He finds these new deaths are strangely connected to his old life, and the discovery of a child's bones in his former neighbour's garden...