After a young man in love inexplicably disappears from a cruise ship in the Caribbean, it raises a few eyebrows and leaves a lot of unanswered questions. It's only after other unexplained death that Bryan Byrnes and his sidekicks at their Colchester HQ., DI's Tamsin Church and Daffyd Rhys-Williams start to investigate in earnest. The murders appear to be accidental, but Byrnes is also being led a merry dance by a local flasher, nicknamed Old King Cole. Four accidents are slightly too many to be a coincidence, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the killings. The bewildering case takes Byrnes back into the past as he gradually unravels a most extraordinary story in a with a labyrinth of twists and turns.