A paeodophile is on the loose in Casterford and a group of vigilantes is on the rampage causing trouble for DI Nick Holroyd and his team. Then a teenage youth is killed and the police are plunged into a murder inquiry. Meanwhile, some letters by Thomas Hardy are discovered, which refer to an unknown novel by him. As the hunt for this manuscript threads through the story another death causes the police to think that the events may all be connected.