Rebus investigates a series of murders where the killer leaves distinctive clues by the butchered bodies of his victims.

A Kurdish asylum seeker is murdered on a notorious Edinburgh estate in an apparent race-hate attack, but Rebus suspects there's more to it. A local MSP reports a missing Kosovan girl, last seen with a known criminal, who also seems to have vanished.

The body of a missing prostitute is found, and the circumstances recall an unsolved murder from twenty years before. Rebus is convinced that the prime suspect from the earlier case has struck again.