Detective Sergeant Hunter Kerr and his partner, DC Grace Marshall, are called to the scene of a brutal slaying: The victim is a 14 year-old girl. The killer has been disturbed, but he has left behind a puzzle. What is the significance of the marks gouged into the girl's torso, and why has a playing card been left with the body?

As the Barnwell Major Investigation Team struggles to resolve the mystery, they are confronted with another gruesome discovery: The mummified remains of a teenage girl are unearthed from the slurry of a former colliery site. This corpse bears all the hallmarks of the first slaying, and yet this body has been buried for well over a decade. They soon realize that a savage killer is stalking Yorkshire, preying on young girls, and with the discovery of the bodies comes a series of revelations about the past.

For Detective Sergeant Hunter Kerr and his team, the race against time to prevent further murders is complicated by the fact that several of his men have been involved on the periphery of earlier crimes, without even knowing it. And while the death toll mounts as more bodies are unearthed and new victims succumb to the murderer's sick appetites, he finds that this case comes very close to home. Very close indeed...