Ex-cop and author Pol Winchester and his wife Fleur think they have found the perfect spot to take it easy. Pol is intent on living the quiet life whilst working on his new novel. Fleur's lifelong dream of a small holding seem to be fulfilled in the idyllic North Wales countryside. But they do not reckon on their new neighbours and their dark and sordid secret. The neighbours are also looking to escape attention, but for very different reasons. Pol makes a chance discovery that sets them onto an inescapable collision course. Pol's military experience should give him skills to protect the woman he loves but does he under estimate the insidious threat of insanity posed by his neighbours? In the hills and mountains of North Wales and in the brooding corridors of a derelict Victorian asylum Pol and Fleur are plunged into a deadly game of psychological cat and mouse with their troubled and dangerous adversaries. Pol is haunted by his past but must overcome the shadows if he and Fleur are to emerge from their nightmare alive and with their sanity intact.