1950’s rural Ireland. A loner comes across a mysterious empty can in a field. Knowing he shouldn’t approach, but unable to hold back, he soon finds himself embroiled in a troubling missing person’s case, as a husband claims his wife may have thrown herself into the sea. Called in from Dublin to investigate is Detective Inspector Strafford, who soon turns to his old ally, he flawed but brilliant pathologist Quirke – a man he is linked to in increasingly complicated ways.