When the skeletal remains of a female are found in Thatcher's Lot by a man using a metal detector, it falls to DI Sally Speckle and her team to investigate. The remains have been in the ground for about five years and the immediate task is to check on women who went missing around that time. There were several, which is disturbing. The missing women come from widely divergent social backgrounds, but the skull has evidence of expensive dental care, and it is with dental records that Sally Speckle is hoping to identify the remains. Two of the missing women fall within the social category who could afford excellent dental care, and it is with these women that Speckle opens her investigation. However, as the investigation progresses and due to DC Helen Rochester's astuteness, the other women come into focus and unlikely suspects emerge. Now it becomes a murder investigation within a murder investigation and the murder team is tested to the limit.