Having just left the Met police in London, for a new life in Aberystwyth, DCI Tom Mathias has hardly had time to unpack before he's called to the scene of a brutal attack at an isolated chalet in the sand dunes. The victim is believed to be a 64 year old God-fearing woman, Helen Jenkins, but she is nowhere to be found.The investigation leads him to the remote village of Devil's Bridge, where Helen Jenkins' body is found at the bottom of a deep ravine, not far from the site of an old children's home that she ran for many years. The home was closed 15 years ago, and the building is now a hotel, but the untouched attic reveals a snapshot of a tortured past. Only by unlocking the secrets of the children's home can Mathias crack the case and reveal the murderer.