A wealthy ex-farmer has been found beaten and burned to death at his home in suburban Johannesburg. Why does his estranged wife not seem particularly surprised by this cold-blooded murder, and insist that the killer will be found in the Northern Cape? That is where the victims plantations were locateda desolate landscape of extreme poverty and with a very dark mining past. Police officer Jacob Tshabalala persuades his former colleague Harry Mason to accompany the woman there as a private investigator. The moment they arrive in the near-abandoned mining town of Leopolds, Harry senses that dangerous secrets are resurfacing. To add to this dark menace is the supposed existence of a local demon, and when Harrys little daughter is viciously attacked, he realists here is a mystery that he must resolutely unravel.