The launch of an exhibition at the Herring House art gallery is disturbed by a stranger who bursts into tears, then claims not to remember who he is or where he comes from. The next day he's found dead.

In the aftermath of a young archaeologist's discovery of human remains that may be modern, Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate a case that is further complicated by the subsequent murder of an elderly woman.

"Ann Cleeves is back with the sixth book in her Shetland series featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, whom readers will remember from Raven Black, White Nights, Red Bones, Blue Lightning, and Dead Water. A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Shetland to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends. But, one of them, Eleanor, disappears--apparently into thin air. It's mid-summer, a time of light nights and unexpected...

Follows DI Jimmy Perez and his team as their investigation of a young Nigerian man's murder leads them to human trafficking network spanning Scotland's rural communities.