Nestled on a windsweptcoastline, life in Tidetown is quiet and assured. But after a galleon isshipwrecked on its shores a plague appears from nowhere to challenge andthreaten time-honoured traditions and ways of being.

'Something is shifting inTidetown. The children walk freely in the streets, unencumbered. The adultsstay indoors, fearful of mixing. Wary of each other, in terror of somethingdeadly in the breath and wake of their words.'

As the plague seeps through theair, creeping under doors and into bedrooms, events unravel in this town on theedge of the world. The unfinished business of the barbaric Fishcutter murdercomes back to haunt the townsfolk as the mercurial twins, Perch and Carp,return.

In the wider world, rumours ofwars, disease and corruption endanger the livelihood and the very existence ofTidetown. Will Mayor Bruin, abhorred for his deceit and pride, provide a visionfor the future? Can the monks on the Island of Good Hope offer salvation in atime when faith is tested? Can Judge Omega keep evil at bay? And will the childrenof Tidetown, under the cultish control of Perch and Carp, create a new orderout of the ravages of the pandemic?