Polish-born detective Dania Gorska, seconded to Dundee's Specialist Crime Division, is called to investigate three murders in which the bodies of the victims are posed in different ways; the first is dressed and staged as a scarecrow while the other two are displayed in an equally bizarre manner. She is unable to establish what links them but clues point to their having been members of a druidic cult - something which her investigative journalist brother Marek is pursuing for his paper. Although Dania's main focus is in solving the murders, she finds herself increasingly drawn to the case of two runaway teenage girls. But when she learns that they were members of the same druid group, she becomes convinced that their disappearance is linked to the murders. And her growing suspicion that the local laird of Backmuir is involved puts her in grave danger...
