Teenage girls are going missing across Liverpool. When the body of the third victim is discovered on the banks of the Mersey, the search for the culprit intensifies, and DCI de Silva is called back to work.  Still reeling from the recent suicide of her husband and dragged down by the undertow of PTSD, de Silva has been struggling in self-imposed exile. In her fragile state, is she ready to win in a race against the clock?  This case should have been DS Barclay's opportunity to finally show himself to be more than what everybody assumes - an exercise in diversity, a gay man employed to tick boxes.  De Silva and Barclay must exorcise their own demons to stop more victims suffering, all while dealing with a traumatised and escalating killer, who is hellbent on finding somebody from their past.