The body of a young woman is found in the ditch at the side of the road on a wet and wild night in the west of Ireland. Detective inspector Mick Hays and his good-looking assistant, sergeant Maureen Lyons are assigned to the case. At first they have difficulty identifying the girl, until two German hikers turn in a mobile phone that they found at the side of the road while walking along the Wild Atlantic Way. Hays and Lyons follow a number of leads in an effort to identify the killer. Their quest takes them overseas, but the killer turns out to be much nearer home than either of them believed possible. The story has a final twist when the detectives eventually get the perpetrator before the court in Galway.