In What Will Survive, DCI Banks struggles to cope with the sudden death of his mother, as he investigates the murder of a young Estonian woman and the disappearance of her drug-dependent sister. Evidence seems to point to a young man with autism who is then killed in an arson attack. But Helen suspects that the real culprit is a local businessman looking to shift the blame. Banks and his team uncover a dark world of vice in a desolate town and a terrible abuse of human rights.