It?s summertime in Scotland: the sun is shining, the sky is blue and people are dying? She?s just the first. How many more will die? It starts with Rosie Williams, a prostitute, stripped naked and beaten to death down by the docks - the heart of Aberdeen?s red light district. For DS Logan McRae it?s a bad start to another bad day. Rosie won?t be the only one making an unscheduled trip to the morgue. Across the city six people are burning to death...

A car accident during a holiday in the Middle East lands Faraday in a hospital packed with the maimed from Gaza, where he embarks on a wild scheme to adopt a horribly burned Palestinian girl.