News travels fast in the peaceful estate of Peabody. So when young Emilia Troy is kidnapped, everyone knows that social worker and neighbour Joshua Salem is the prime suspect. The tragic history of Emilia’s father, Roger, whose career as a great scientist faltered after the loss of his first wife and pushed him towards a slow decline into insanity, is also well known. The case is turned over to Superintendent Gregory Summers who must solve Emilia’s disappearance by trawling through his suspects’ murky lives - the over protective social worker, the lonely nurse, the jilted foster parents. As the investigation progresses, a manhunt through the hoof and mouth infected countryside has Summers in the company of a ghost from his own past, Chief Inspector Megan Davies. Personal relations and professionalism overlap as Summers soon learns that behind every respectable facade, dark secrets lurk.