Police Sergeant William South has a reason for not wanting to be on a murder investigation. He may be a murderer himself. He is partnered with the strong-willed Detective Sergeant Alexandra Cupidi, newly recruited to the Kent coast from London. Together they find the body, violently beaten, forced inside a wooden chest. Their suspect, Donnie Fraser, is a drifter from Northern Ireland. His presence in Kent disturbs William because he knew him as a boy. If the past is catching up with him, South wants to meet it head on. For even as he desperately investigates the connections, he knows there is no crime, however duplicitous or cruel, that can compare to the great lie of his childhood.