A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective superintendent, and now inmate, John Brace. He is willing to tell Vera where the body of a missing person is buried, in return for protection for his family. But opening up this cold case strikes much closer to home than Vera anticipates, when her investigation takes her to The Seagull, a once decadent and now derelict nightclub where her father and his wheeler-dealer friends used to congregate. As Vera confronts her unwanted memories, and the corruption at the heart of the community, her past begins to collide dangerously with the present...