Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway is called in to investigate when builders, demolishing a large old house in Norwich, uncover the bones of a child beneath a doorway - minus the skull. Is it some ritual sacrifice or just plain straightforward murder? DCI Harry Nelson would like to find out - and fast.
When it turns out the house was once a children's home and that two children did go missing from the home forty years before, Ruth is drawn ever more deeply into the case. But as spring turns into summer it becomes clear that someone is trying very hard to put her off the scent.
