It is 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, when eighteen-year-old Daniel Robertshaw steps out onto the rocks off the Yorkshire fishing port of Staithes and is confronted by a young girl’s body. But who is she? Nobody in the locality is missing. Naive and childlike, Daniel has often been blamed for many of his community’s ills—now he is accused of murder. He has one friend in the world—a fossil collecting barrister whom he met on the beach—now that friend will be called to his defence. Will James Cairn be able to redress the scales of justice?