It is 1920 and DI Albert Lincoln is still reeling from the disturbing events of the previous year. Before the war, he'd investigated the murder of a child in a Cheshire village, and now a woman has been murdered there and another child is missing. With the help of the village schoolmistress, Albert closes in on the original pre-war killer. He soon realises the only witness is in grave danger, possibly from somebody he calls “the Shadow Man”. And as he discovers more about the victims he finds information that might bring him a step closer to solving a mystery of his own – the whereabouts of his son.