In the 1870s, the future Inspector Brunt is on his way home after a reprimand when he has a disturbing encounter with George Ludlam, an enigmatic, taciturn man, intent on reaching one of Derbyshire's more remote villages. Then news reaches HQ that this man's arrival has terrified some of the villagers. Who is he? Who used he to be? And why has he come back? Brunt is sent to carry out an investigation, thus distracting him from the pursuit of Amelia Pilkington, a confidence trickster who lives off the hydropathic society of the time, but the affair becomes public when a woman is murdered and George Ludlam is the obvious suspect.