For one terrible moment it seems that the house fire on Bessemer Street has taken the lives of two young Polish children. However, when the fire brigade conducts their gruesome search of the building, they discover a man's body. Even more disturbing are the definite signs of arson they find. When the forensic report confirms foul play, Detective Superintendent Gil Mayo assigns the case to his young colleague, Abigail Moon.

Meanwhile, Inspector Martin Kite, recently returned to Lavenstock, looks into a brutal attack on vicar Haldane's elderly wife. She is lying in a coma and Kite feels that he might soon be investigating a murder. The only evidence Kite has is that someone had been visiting Mrs. Haldane before she was attacked and that nothing was stolen from the vicarage. Was the attack a random act of violence or a deliberate act of vengeance?

D. S. Mayo is frustrated at the lack of progress his detectives are making and it's not until a stolen art treasure leads them both down the same path, one which takes them from Poland to wartime England to the present day, that the key to the danger can be unlocked.