It's 2014 and US post-doctoral scholar Alice has found love and is happily settled in Ireland.On the tenth floor of Belfast's iconic Divis Tower Block, Jed, a member of Alice's restorative justice youth project, is feeling deeply troubled. Her efforts to support him bring Alice into close with his mother, Brenda, a woman who has had more than her share of hard luck and who is just beginning to fight back.Then two members of Catholic religious orders are found brutally murdered, in Belfast and Wicklow, and Alice becomes embroiled in the investigation through her previous experience with DI Caroline Paton and the Belfast Murder Squad.Evidence of a distinctive signature at both crime scenes suggests that the two men are victims of the same meticulously organised and sadistic killer. Are the victims connected or might this be the beginning of a hate campaign against members of the Church?