Midwinter, a freezing night in Leith, near Edinburgh's red light district. A policewoman's flashlight stabs the darkness in a snow-covered cemetery. The circle of light stops on a colourless, dead face.

It is the body of a prostitute, the first to die at the hands of a serial murderer. But it takes more than one death to keep working girls off the streets. Detective Sergeant Alice Rice joins them as they ply their trade in back lanes and waste grounds, searching for evidence from the girls themselves. She soon finds that is dangerous for any woman to get too close to a killer who has nothing to lose.