In a bitter winter in Yorkshire, DCI Michael Thackeray investigates the unexplained death of a young estate agent, Linda Wright, found apparently drowned after her car plunged into a remote reservoir in the Dales beyond Bradfield. Meanwhile reporter Laura Ackroyd finds herself reluctantly transferred to run the weekly newspaper in the market town of Arnedale, not far from where Linda has been discovered. The welcome there is far from friendly, from colleagues or local worthies, and Thackeray, her on and off lover, is uncomfortable to find her investigating the home town he left years before under a cloud. Secrecy, corruption and prejudice soon flare into violence as Laura discovers that crime is not confined to city streets but can flourish behind the picturesque fields and moors where Thackeray was raised.
