Superintendent McQuarrie is not well liked. Bullying bureaucrat, dapper golfer and Chamber of Commerce toady, he has few allies amongst the rank and file of Waterloo coppers. But when his daughter-in-law Janine is brutally slain in front of her seven-year-old daughter, the team are quick to respond.
Detective Inspector Hal Challis sets out to investigate. Was Janine the target? What did her death have to do with the sex parties taking place behind closed doors up and down the peninsula? How many people had something to hide, something to gain from her death?
To make matters worse Challis has problems of his own. His relationship with Tessa Kane, editor of the local newspaper, has stalled. His ex-wife's suicide has compounded his sense of isolation and Tessa is caught up in a big story about the controversial new immigration detention centre on the edge of town.
Desperately trying to negotiate both personal and political sensitivities, Challis and his colleagues are faced with a network of lies and secrets, of explosive passions and deadly intent.
