When a spy posing as a politician's wife learns her lover has been murdered, an old assassin friend joins her on a quest for truth — and vengeance.

Middle-aged Jem sets out from his suburban home on a journey into the woods, where he reconnects with his estranged hermit brother Ray. Bonded by a mysterious, complicated past, the men share a fraught, if occasionally tender relationship—one that was forever altered by shattering events decades earlier.

Tommy Lynley, an aristocratic detective, and Barbara Havers, a working-class maverick sergeant, share little in common; except a passion for justice. His intellect and her instincts make them an unlikely but formidable team.

After losing her beloved father, Helen finds herself saved by an unlikely friendship with a stubborn hawk named Mabel. Through the bond, Helen rediscovers the beauty of being alive.