In Edinburgh, disgraced academic Declan Rees acquires a mysterious red leather-bound manuscript at auction for £300,000, outbidding enigmatic librarian Mara Canmore. The book, created in 1693, cannot be opened conventionally—it only yields its contents when the holder confesses an unspoken truth. When Declan confesses to knowingly using forged evidence in his academic work, the book opens, revealing pages of confessions from people who subsequently disappeared from existence. The book literally rewrites reality, erasing people and altering memories once their secrets are recorded. Mara, from the secretive Candlemark Library that collects "objects of power," reveals the book was created by theologian Alasdair Munro as an instrument of divine judgment. Inspector Howes begins investigating Declan as reality shifts around them.