Gus Dury once had a high-flying career as a journalist and a wife he loved. But now he is living on the edge, among Edinburgh's down-and-outs, drifting from drink to drink, trying not to sign divorce papers. But the road takes an unexpected turn when a friend asks him to investigate the brutal torture and killing of his son, and Gus becomes embroiled in a much bigger story of political corruption and illegal people-trafficking. Seedy hostels, bleak wastelands and sudden violence contrast with the cobbled streets and cool bistros of fashionable Old Edinburgh, as the puzzle unravels to a truly shocking ending.