It is 2001. The seaside town of Eastbourne is being battered by a tidal wave of violence. The collapse of Devil's Chimney, a chalk tower at the foot of Beachy Head, has awakened old superstitions and opened old wounds that most would rather forget.

Constable Chalvington Barnes is an ambitious young cop with his sights set on the top. His latest collar, a serial night creeper terrorising his sleeping victims with a knife, is an arrest that earns Barnes his ticket into CID. With a bit of breathing space, the CID congratulate themselves on a job well done - and their complacency is punished when a young police officer is brutally murdered...

With the prime suspect protected by an apparently concrete alibi, the ensuing investigation thrusts Barnes to the centre of a web of greed, corruption and chaos. When the scum that lurk in the shadows of Devil's Chimney turn the tables on the police and start taking over the streets, Barnes must fight to protect those he loves. But the answers he wants are closer to home than he realises...