Detective Constable Scott Cullen finds his professional and private lives at opposite ends of the spectrum. While his career is stagnating - impacted by the jockeying for position ahead of the formation of the Scottish Police Service, as much as by his own inability to push his case for promotion - his relationship with DS Sharon McNeill goes from strength-to-strength, until dinner with both sets of parents is interrupted by a call to action.

A body has been found in a Range Rover at the foot of a shale bing in West Lothian.

Cullen is forced to go back to his old stomping ground, haunted by figures from his past. DS Colin Methven, the latest officer occupying the position that Cullen has long coveted, is intent on straightening out Cullen’s cowboy nature, which has fractured his friendship with DC Angela Caldwell. Lurking in the background is DI Paul Wilkinson, trying to push Cullen back to a recent major case. As the mysteries are compounded, Cullen starts to feel lost among the dyed in the wool.