When the body of a teenage girl is found in a bleak Yorkshire quarry, forensic evidence points overwhelmingly to the senile old farmer who discovered her. But DCI Ed Swift is not convinced. Hampered by a burned-out sergeant and a superintendent desperate to get the case sewn up, Swift is in a race against time to find the real killer. His investigation points to the possible guilt of three people. But which one? And where is the evidence to make a charge stand up in court? Swift must make his way through a tangle of lies and deceit to uncover an act of evil, which has destroyed the life of more than one young person. And then he must find the proof...