Secrets hide like coiled snakes under the hot rocks of Gibber’s Creek. A body has been found in the burned-out wreckage of the church at Gibber's Creek – with older skeletons lying beneath it. The corpse is identified as that of Ignatius Mervyn, the man who attempted to kill Jed Kelly and her unborn child. Newcomer Fish Johnstone is drawn into the murder investigation, convinced that the local police are on the wrong track with their inquiries. But as she digs beneath the warm and welcoming surface of the Gibber's Creek community, more secrets emerge. And Fish must also face her own mystery – the sudden appearance and then disappearance of her father, a Vietnamese refugee she never knew.