When the body of an almost-naked young man is found in a car parked behind one of Haworth's many eating establishments, the town, best known to tourists as the site of the Haworth Parsonage of Bronte fame, is about to become recognized for something much more sinister.

After solving the puzzle of the corpse's identity, Charlie Peace and his superior, Detective Superintendent Mike Oddie, must get to the bottom of the strange goings-on at the Ashworth artists' colony, where the dead boy had acted as odd-job handyman. The little knot of people in the community seems to have been brought together less by their ability as artists than by a common worship of the distinguished painter Ranulph Byatt, who feeds on their adulation. As the search for the killer continues, Peace and Oddie uncover a series of dark secrets on the harsh Haworth landscape. Up to the last surprising pages of this superb psychological thriller, Barnard displays every devious trick in his arsenal. As People has said, "Just when you think you've figured out what Barnard is up to, he'll outfox you again".