It's been several years since John Rebus was forced to retire, and he now works as a civilian in a cold case unit and yearns to be back on the front line. So when a long-dead case bursts back to life, he can't resist the opportunity to get his feet under the CID desk once more. But Rebus is as stubborn and anarchic as ever, and he quickly finds himself in deep with pretty much everyone, including his ex-colleague Siobhan Clarke. All Rebus wants to do is discover the truth about a series of seemingly unconnected disappearances stretching back to the millennium. But no one else wants to go there - and that includes his fellow officers.