Detective Sergeant Harry Belltree, back on the job after a near-fatal confrontation with corrupt colleagues, has become a departmental embarrassment. He can't and doesn't want to return to his post with the Sydney Police Department. Instead, he accepts a post far away from Sydney and attempts to build a quiet life in Newcastle, Australia. But that quiet life quickly eludes him. A body's been found buried just offshore on Ash Island and that one body may well just be the first of many. Not only that, Belltree finds himself engaged in some unfinished business. The car crash that killed his parents and blinded his wife happened not far from Newcastle. Belltree knows it was no accident and it's not in his nature to let sleeping dogs lie. When his wife Jenny becomes pregnant, a much longed-for event, the stakes become higher than ever.