The Home Office bring in senior Manchester detective Peter Hunter to conduct a secret review of the Ripper investigation to date.

Rookie journalist Eddie Dunford is determined to find the truth in an increasingly complex maze of lies and deceit surrounding the police investigation into a series of child abductions.

When another child goes missing, washed-up solicitor John Piggott unwittingly provides a catalyst for Detective Chief Superindent Maurice Jobson to start to right some wrongs.