It is 1951, and missing persons are naturally a normal part of Joe Pelier's portfolio as a private inquiry agent, but when he is asked to investigate the disappearance of Jerseyman Thomas Allard, previously believed to have died seven years earlier, the case turns out to be far from normal. For one thing, the man whom everyone believed to be dead is recently reported to have sold his cottage to a local fisherman.

Joe's investigation takes him to Jersey and Brittany amid shadows of an ugly past that, aware of public weariness and distracted by the new threat of the Cold War, the authorities now prefer to forget. He learns of horrific crimes committed at St Malo Prison by the Nazi occupiers, and it is at this point that he begins to see his quest as more than just a case. It is a matter of honour.