The body of a fifteen-year-old boy is discovered ten years after he disappeared. Dennis Lewis's remains are bound with rope in a makeshift grave in a farmer's field near Maryport, Cumbria.

Community Sergeant Harriet Calder was not involved in the original investigation, but her name is highlighted on a church bulletin found with the body. Scrawled on the same page is the word 'Compline'. Calder, in her part-time role as a Methodist preacher, had led the service at his church the week before Dennis disappeared. Through her recall of events, she is drawn back into the Major Investigation Unit to assist the renewed investigation.