Awoken in the middle of the night by a banging barn door, farm manager Ned Barton braves the storm to investigate. Inside, he finds the mutilated body of a woman displayed like a sacrificial trophy on bales of straw. Superintendent Mike Yeadings of the Thames Valley police is faced with multiple murder as three related bodies are discovered in the manor house: an entire family massacred, except for a missing boy. The hunt for him, whether as prime suspect or threatened survivor, unearths deeper layers of mystery. What is the function of the newly padlocked hut in the nearby woods? Do its contents prove an occult element, as village gossip suggest? And when an eccentric grandmother suddenly presents herself as the boy's legal guardian, can her quoted motives be believed? Suppressing his horror at the massacre, Yeadings is under pressure to lead his team - as ever competing for the higher ground - through the mental labyrinth to find the perpetrator. Clare Curzon's latest master piece presents a thrilling journey of intrigue and red herrings as they unpick, link by link, the intricate chain of events that have led to these appalling murders.