Probation officer Alex Hastings is struggling with the customs, dialect and prejudice she faces as an 'incomer' to the Somerset Levels. When one of her probationers, Kevin Mallory, is charged with murdering the 'Elver Man', who operated in the poaching underworld, she is embroiled in the investigation. Determined to prove Mallory is innocent, Alex puts her own career at risk as she searches for the truth behind the Elver Man's death, but her efforts attract the attention of the real killer. Alex finds herself drawn into a web of family feuds, gang loyalties and revenge killings as an unknown predator stalks her across the eerie landscape of the Levels.

In Somerset it is carnival season once more, but Alex Hastings is not in the mood to join the festivities. Struck down by a potentially lethal illness, she is beset by problems both at work and within her family. Meanwhile, the demise of Derek Johns' gang has left a power vacuum, and an uneasy alliance of criminals forms, determined to take control of the area for their own gain. Then, one night out on the marshes a local man is found dead amidst reports of flickering lights and strange music — and rumours grow of the return of an ancient evil. This second book in the Alex Hastings series picks up the story six weeks after the finale to Death of the Elver Man, leading Alex and her friends further into the mystery and menace surrounding the Somerset Levels.