In the Scottish Highlands where secrets settle like mist in the glens, Detective Inspector James Corstorphine is summoned to a macabre scene–a gamekeeper hanging from an ancient oak, ensnared by an intricate trap of wire and bone. Still grieving his wife's death, Corstorphine finds himself hunting a killer who crafts elaborate deathtraps from human remains–clockwork mechanisms that deliver murder with chilling precision.

In the summer of 1990, young sisters Caroline and Joanna are sent to stay with their Great Aunt Dora in the idyllic Gloucestershire village of Witchwood. Still reeling from their father’s tragic death and their mother’s grief, Witchwood offers a welcome escape—but the shadowy woods hide dark secrets that bring their innocence to a distressing end. Caroline, volatile and longing for attention, becomes fixated on Dean Fry, the handsome local bad boy. When a body is found in the woods, the village becomes a cauldron of suspicion.

When Kate Fox receives a late-night phone call, her seemingly perfect life on the Nebraska prairie shatters in an instant. Eldon, shirt-tail relative and owner of one of the largest cattle ranches in Grand County, has been killed. Kate's husband, Ted, the Grand County sheriff, has been shot and may never walk again. And worst of all, Ted is the prime suspect in Eldon’s murder. Desperate to clear Ted's name, Kate throws herself headlong into the hunt for the real killer. When she finds herself the victim of several mysterious “accidents”, she knows she’s running out of time.

In a daring, brutal act of terrorism, an explosion rocks and topples the Statue of Liberty. Special Agent Michael Walker of the National Park Service is awakened by his boss with that news and sent to New York as the agent-in-charge. Not long after he lands, he learns two things: one that Gina Delgado of the FBI has been placed in charge of the investigation as the lead of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and two, that threats of a second terrorism attack are already being called into the media.

Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something. Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live on the grounds—and together they begin to unpack the secrets of this place. As the truth comes to the surface and the darkness moves in, Pearl must rethink everything she knew—and risk what she holds most dear.