In the seaside village of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, three old friends meet for the first time in years. They – Helen, Joe and Mush – were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann at its white-hot centre. But later that year, Kala disappeared without a trace. Now human remains have been discovered in the woods – including a skull with a Polaroid photo tucked inside – and the town is both aghast and titillated at the reopening of such an old wound. On the eve of this gruesome discovery, Helen had reluctantly returned for her father’s wedding; the world-famous musician Joe had come home to dry out and reconnect with something authentic; and Mush had never left. But when two more girls go missing, they are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala’s disappearance.