In the remote Scottish Shetland Islands, Det. Insp. Jimmy Perez investigates the murder of teenage Catherine Ross, found strangled on a snowy hillside shortly after New Year's. Police and citizens alike are quick to lay the blame on local eccentric Magnus Tait, who was not only the last person to see Catherine alive but also the prime suspect in the disappearance eight years earlier of another girl. Perez is soon drawn into an intricate web of lies as he unearths long-buried secrets that go deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.