His native Scotland stands on the cusp of a new era of international expansion under its charismatic new leader, but former top cop Sir Robert Skinner is settled happily in Spain with his family, fully engaged in a new and unexpected career. He is focused on a business issue, only to be drawn suddenly homewards as a family member finds himself a witness to a homicidal attack, and under fire himself.

Skinner drops everything to rush to his stricken son's aid. Pulled back into his old world he finds himself facing the aftermath of a shocking crime only to see it evolve into a mystery as great as any he has ever faced. When kidnap follows murder, and the investigation expands in range and complexity, can Bob and his onetime police protégé ACC Sauce Haddock run the perpetrators to ground?