On his way back from ongoing investigation into an apparent serial killer in Scotland, forensics anthropologist, David Hunter is asked if he could examine a fire-death on the remote Hebridean island of Runa - reported by Brody, a retired DI who lives on the island. The journey over to Runa is delayed by rough seas and it's dark by the time Hunter and the two mainland police officers and a reporter accompanying him arrive. Warned that it will be unlike anything else that he has encountered, Hunter and the police go straight to the body. And it is indeed unusual: almost totally incinerated except for one hand and both feet, which have been left untouched by the fire. And nothing else appears to have been affected by the fire. It appears to be a textbook case of the phenomenon known as spontaneous human combustion. One of the policemen is quick to record it as an accidental death, but the retired DI Brody is less convinced. Hunter, having established that the victim was female, keeps an open mind but on closer investigation of the site the next day, discovers skull fragments that lead him to just one conclusion: that this was no accident, this was murder. As the enormity of this sinks in to the small community, the island is hit by the full force of the storm - and as power and communications fail, so the killing begins in earnest ...