Gus Dury once had a high-flying career as a journalist and a wife he adored. But now he is living on the edge a drink away from Edinburgh's down-and-outs drifting from bar to bar trying not to sign divorce papers. But the road takes an unexpected turn when a friend asks him to investigate the brutal torture and killing of his son and Gus becomes embroiled in a much bigger story of political corruption and illegal people-trafficking. Seedy doss-houses bleak wastelands and sudden violence contrast with the cobbled streets and cool bistros of fashionable Edinburgh as the puzzle unravels to a truly shocking ending.