After a child's mutilated body is discovered in a ditch, detective Harry Mason needs to discover whether this gruesome death is the work of a serial murderer or a muti-killer - butchering children to make powerful "medicine" from their body parts. His police partner Jacob is forced to reconsider his beliefs as both a tribesman and a cop, while becoming increasingly convinced that this time they are dealing with a genuine witch - whose power is sufficient to subvert the whole investigation.
Meanwhile, conducting her own investigation into slave-trafficking, British reporter Nina Reading has put herself in deadly danger. Their discoveries unite and lead them ever deeper into an awesome underworld in the slums of Hillbrow, where criminal money and fear reign supreme. And their enemies will stop at nothing - including the kidnapping of Harry's own child.