A man is found dead after a house fire. Detective Fiona Moore suspects foul play.
It's not the charred remains of Tony Phelan that really trouble Dublin law enforcement or the traces of accelerant, so much as the bullet hole in his chest.
When a weapon is recovered at the back of the still-smoldering house, it will be the first clue that the death is connected to China.
And when Phelan is identified as an airport worker, the investigation begins to focus on suspicious goings-on in relation to a regular A300 freight flight from Shanghai.
But pointing the finger at the Chinese is all the rage and maybe detectives have just been led up the garden path. Could the proximity of the victim's house to prime development land be more relevant?
Someone has clearly sought to gain from Phelan's death, but the detectives' job would be easier if they could clarify the motive. Enter a mysterious agent from the US and this case gets enormously tricky for detectives Fiona Moore and Aidan Burke to solve.