Fifteen years before the novel starts, the village of Dendale was flooded and its inhabitants removed to make way for a new reservoir. Three little girls disappeared along with the prime suspect. It was Dalziel's worst case. Now it looks as if he's about to relive it: a little girl goes missing in the valley next to Dendale; some graffiti with a deadly message appears, and the old village emerges as the reservoir shrinks. To deal with the current disappearance, the loutish Andy Dalziel and the sensitive Peter Pascoe must delve into the past and into their own reserves of experience in search of answers that threaten to bring more pain than they resolve.