Awoken in the middle of the night by a banging barn door, farm manager Ned Barton braves the storm to investigate. Inside, he finds the mutilated body of a woman displayed like a sacrificial trophy on bales of straw. Superintendent Mike Yeadings of the Thames Valley police is faced with multiple murder as three related bodies are discovered in the manor house: an entire family massacred, except for a missing boy. The hunt for him, whether as prime suspect or threatened survivor, unearths deeper layers of mystery.