When Alice Morgan disappears it raises immediate questions for forensic psychologist Paula Maguire. Alice the daughter of a life peer in the Home Office has vanished along with a holy relic - the bones of a saint - and the only trace is the bloodstains on the altar. With no body to confirm death the pressure is all-consuming and Paula must put her own life including her imminent marriage on hold to find the truth. A connection to a decades-old murder indicates that all is not as it seems: can Alice be found or will Paula learn that those that are hungry for vengeance may be the most savage of all?