A year on from the mysterious disappearance of Jenny Bercival, DI Wesley Peterson is called in when the body of a strangled woman is found floating out to sea in a dinghy. The discovery mars the festivities of the Palkin Festival, held each year to celebrate the life of John Palkin, a fourteenth-century Mayor of Tradmouth who made his fortune from trade and piracy. And now it seems as if death and mystery have returned to haunt the town. It is only by delving into the past that Wesley comes to learn the truth ... a truth that will bring mortal danger in its wake.