Superintendent Teresa Battaglia has fought for nearly four decades to earn rank and respect on a testosterone-heavy Italian police force. When she's called to investigate a gruesome murder near a mountainside town, she's paired with a young male inspector she's not sure she trusts. But she has no choice--in this remote town full of secrets, eerie folktales and primal instincts, the killer seems drawn to a group of local children, who may be in grave danger.

As Teresa inches closer to the truth, she must confront the possibility that her faculties, no longer what they once were, may fail her before the chase is over.