Four months ago, Detective Sergeant Nolan Cormac closed the file on Dave Burnham, the murderous landlord of The White Horse pub. Now, as renovations begin under a new owner, a sledgehammer breaks through a cellar wall and uncovers a secret hidden for several years.

Cormac is called back to the scene of his last triumph only to discover it was the prelude to a far greater horror. This isn't a new victim, but an old one, but she was killed with the same chillingly precise method Burnham had used. As Cormac's team digs deeper, they uncover a pattern of missing women, all vulnerable, and all apparently forgotten. It soon becomes clear that when they caught Burnham, they stumbled upon the tip of an iceberg without realising it.

The only man with answers is Burnham himself, now incarcerated and eager to play games. But as Burnham's confessions bring more dark secrets to light, Cormac fears that understanding this killer might mean becoming contaminated by him.