A holiday weekend is ruined by a drowning in a picturesque village. The incident not only traumatizes Detective Cooper, a helpless witness to the tragedy, but leads him to become involved in the tangled lives of the victim's family. As he gets to know them, Cooper begins to suspect that one of them is harboring a secret that the whole family is desperate to cover up.

Meanwhile, Detective Fry embarks on a personal journey back to her roots. As she finds herself drawn into an investigation of her own, Fry realizes there is only one person she can rely on for the help she needs. But that man is Ben Cooper, and he's back in Derbyshire, where his suspicions lead him toward a shocking discovery on the banks of another Peak District river.