DCI Tom Mathias is a man on the run from his past. Having just left the Met police in London, he finds himself holed up in a caravan on the outskirts of Aberystwyth, an university town on the west coast of Wales sandwiched between the Irish sea and a vast mountainous hinterland. He hardly has time to unpack before being called to the scene of a brutal attack at an isolated chalet in the sand dunes. The victim is believed to be a 64 year old God-fearing woman, Helen Jenkins, but she is nowhere to be found. The investigation leads him to the remote village of Devil's Bridge where for many years Helen Jenkins ran a Children's Home. The home has long since closed and is now a hotel, eerie, mysterious, atmospheric and a treasure trove of buried secrets. On the nearby bridge railings, Mathias finds traces of blood which leads to his discovery of the missing body in a deep pool at the bottom of the ravine below. Further investigation into the history of the Children's Home reveals that the attic of the hotel has been left exactly as it was when the home closed down 15 years ago, a snapshot of the tortured past of the children who lived there. The race is on to trace the children who passed through he doors of the home. Only three of the children who lived at the home still live in Aberystwyth and the surrounding area. Hywel Maybury, a troubled loner who works at the local amusement arcade; Jenny James, a rootless wanderer who has only recently returned to town, and Catrin John, who has managed to put the past behind her and leads a quiet suburban life with her husband and new born baby. Mathias knows that only by unlocking the secrets of what happened at the children's home years ago will he crack the case and reveal the murderer. Secrets which lead to a chase into the hinterland and a climax at an ancient mountain Chapel.
