When art dealer Ivan Fielding is found dead of a heart attack in his home, it doesn't initially seem like a case for Detective Inspector Frost and the Denton police force. But then signs of a burglary are discovered, and Frost senses there's more to the story than meets the eye – even though the only thing taken was a worthless amateur painting. Then a young girl is abducted outside the school, an infamous gangster fresh from prison arrives in the area, and dead bodies start turning up in the woods. As Frost and his team dig deeper, everything seems to lead back to Ivan Fielding's murky lifetime of misdeeds.