Special agent Pendergast takes ona private case in Exmouth, Massachusetts - a quaint village on the coast north of Salem - to investigate the theft of a valuable wine cellar. He and Constance Greene quickly discover something far more sinister - a bricked-up niche in the wine cellar that holds the remains of a man, tortured and then entombed alive 150 years ago. But why? The puzzle is compounded when they discover a murdered body - covered with mysterious symbols - in the salt marshes behind Exmouth ...