Former cop Frank Elder is once more drawn out of retirement by a phone call from his ex-wife, this time asking him to look into the disappearance of her friend Jennie's older, widowed sister Claire in Nottingham. Elder reluctantly agrees to return to the city where his family disintegrated. Elder soon uncovers sexual secrets of Claire's that take Jennie by surprise. But when Claire is found dead at home--unmarked and carefully dressed--it is Elder who is surprised by the similarities to an old case. To solve this riddle, Elder will have to repartner with another person from his past, Detective Inspector Maureen Prior, and delve into several suspects' own traumatic histories. In a case in which neither memories, confessions, nor instincts can be trusted, Elder struggles with the weight of the past.