Detective Inspector Rebus is buried under a pile of paperwork generated by his investigations into a suspected war criminal … Until the running battle between two rival gangs on the city streets arrives at his door. A Chechen gangster is running prostitutes out of Bosnia via Tommy Telford, a Glaswegian upstart muscling in on Edinburgh territory. When his own daughter is the victim of a hit and run Rebus is forced to acknowledge that there is nothing he wouldn't do to bring down prime suspect Telford - even if it means cutting a deal with the devil.