A serial killer of woman is on the loose in a remote area of the Norfolk coast.

Overshadowing the bleak landscape and the lives of the local community is the Larksoken nuclear power station, run by charismatic Alex Mair. Commander Adam Dalgliesh, who is staying at his aunt's converted windmill, becomes involved in the hunt for the murderer, a search that implicates him in the concerns and dangerous secrets of the headland community. And then one moonlit night it becomes chillingly apparent that the mass murderer isn't the only killer at work in Larksoken.