When the body of a woman washes up on the coast of a small Scottish town in 1992, the residents prepare to mourn their local teacher. Only Claire Roberts is very much alive and John Reid, the new detective in town, knows that she is hiding something. Why else would she choose to live a hermit-like existence in a godforsaken place near Kirkwall? Just when he starts to believe that she is innocent, the whole world seems to turn against her and John finds himself in a race against his boss to find out what exactly happened that stormy January night, even though the truth might not be what he had hoped for...