A young boy's body is washed from the river and forensic examination reveals he has been murdered. The accidental discovery that a convicted paedophile lives in the nearby village leads to police interest in his activities and when five decaying bodies are found in his garden, he is arrested. Helena Flemming is called in as his solicitor, but busy on another case, she asks John Eisenmenger to travel to the crime scene. And there he discovers the abuse is far more grotesque than previously thought, and that beneath its idyllic surface, there is a far darker side to the village.