The story begins with a stolen tractor, hardly a job for DCI Banks and his Homicide and Major Crimes team, but the new police commissioner has put rural crime high on her agenda. At the same time, an apparent crime scene is discovered in an old hangar at an abandoned WWII airfield. In addition, two local lads are missing. Just as Banks and his team are getting a grip on all these incidents, a car accident in a freak hailstorm turns up a gruesome discovery.