The killing of a local minister leads DCI Tom Mathias and DI Mared Rhys to a remote community in the mountains. Confronted by a family in grief and a community in shock, they must tread carefully as they investigate the life and violent death of the troubled victim. As the case continues, DS Sian Owens leads a separate investigation into the recent attack on DCI Mathias, an attack that left his home destroyed and his skull split open. DS Owens's investigation is an unwelcome distraction for DCI Mathias, and he struggles to keep his emotions in check as the two cases unfold.

From the windswept sand dunes of the coastline to the badlands of the hinterland, this is a detective drama with pace, poetry and scale. A world of Blood, soil and belonging. A place that lives by its own rules: a natural crucible of colliding worlds where history and myth meet the modern and contemporary. Into this world steps DCI Tom Mathias. On the run from his past, a brilliant but troubled man. Having abandoned his life in London, he isolates himself on the outskirts of town – a town filled with secrets as dark and destructive as his own.