On the desolate moors of Dark Peak, villagers of Withens are being murdered. And one has been dead for two years--though not everyone will believe it. As far as the parents of missing student Emma Renshaw are concerned, their daughter is alive--which doesn't help DS Diane Fry in her efforts to re-open the case. DC Ben Cooper's attempts to solve the killings come up against an equally impenetrable barrier in the shape of the Oxley family. They stick to their own area like the hefted sheep on the hillsides, passing on secret knowledge through generations and guarding their traditions from the likes of Cooper.