When Denton is persuaded to take on the case of a woman whose husband is the chief suspect in a murder investigation, it is only with the greatest reluctance. If the police don't have enough evidence to charge Arthur Snokes with the murder of Bella Wilcox, then what exactly can Denton contribute?

But as he becomes reluctantly involved in the unhappy affairs of the Snokes family, Denton discovers a darker and more intriguing mystery: the story of a musical prodigy, a childhood tragedy and an autistic boy whose bizarre imagination holds the key to a series of killings.