When Arya Barman, a young English policewoman of Indian descent, is stationed near Newcastle, she soon finds herself delving into the secrets of a rural society seemingly above suspicion…

Arya Barman is a policewoman in Nothumberland, a remote corner of England near the Scottish border. Her village of Bamburgh may be secluded, but it's far from quiet! One morning, a flock of sheep is found dead on the beach. Is this massacre linked to the murder of Richard Owens, the son of the flock's wealthy owner Lord Arthur Owens? Or, above all, to the Owens' charming veterinarian, who keeps interfering with her investigation? As Arya sifts through Bamburgh's buried secrets, she must race to stop the murders starting to pop up all over the moors.