In Northern Newfoundland, where Viking ships landed a thousand years earlier, Detective Sergeant Calista Gates awaits the arrival of a cruise ship bearing hundreds of tourists. Camouflaged among them may be someone hell-bent on Calista's destruction. The young police chief in this wind-swept territory has received an anonymous warning: one of the ship's passengers has it out for her. But then events take a sudden turn. A prominent passenger vanishes without a trace. The next day, Calista Gates stumbles across the battered body of an unknown man in an isolated bay. The murder investigation leads her to an archeological dig in the barren vastness of Labrador, where two students disappeared six years ago. Can she uncover the truth before more people wind up dead? And before she becomes a victim herself?