Having recovered from a nervous breakdown following the sudden death of his wife, Detective Inspector Jaxon Wolfe returns to full-time duties with West Yorkshire Police. Retaining the rank of detective inspector for a trial period of one year, he is assigned to the Fraud Squad, not his preferred option, but six months later, as a result of staff shortages and funding issues, he is transferred to Criminal Investigations to resume his previous tenure. Shortly thereafter, the body of a young man is discovered in bizarre circumstances on moorland near Wolfe's hometown of Carlton in West Yorkshire.
Less than 48 hours later, another body is discovered in a multi-storey car park in Leeds city centre. Wolfe soon finds a link between the two victims; a photograph and a manuscript which leads the investigation from West Yorkshire today to the city of Sarajevo, some twelve years ago and the disappearance of a university lecturer.
When a third corpse is found, Wolfe realises he is in a race against time. He knows who the next victim will be, but to stop further bloodshed, DI Wolfe has to understand the past and the reasons behind the events that happened in Bosnia more than a decade earlier. It seems, however far-fetched the possibility might be, the discovery and removal of gold bullion from the catacombs of a bomb-damaged building in Sarajevo, where it had lain for more than 100 years, is the catalyst behind the events happening on his patch in West Yorkshire.