CI Vera Stanhope is drawn into a suspicious death on Ternstone, a remote and inaccessible island off the coast of Northumberland, home only to numerous species of birds and the rangers who observe them. The last thing anyone expected to see was a body, cruelly washed up on the shore.

The body of a young man is discovered face down in a river by Thrunton Woods. But tracing the victim's identity proves difficult for Vera and her team.

Vera is called to Northumberland University when a student plummets to his death from the top of a disused faculty building.

When the body of a missing teenager is discovered buried on the moors, Vera is forced to delve into the life and the secrets of the victim.