Alone on Dartmoor, campaigning journalist Erin O'Leary is in hiding from Russian assassins. In a gated community, built on the ruins of an ancient manor house, she shares her exile with a disparate group of new neighbours. They are Gerald and Sylvia, early retired with social pretensions above their means; Ned and Lisa, newlyweds who know each other through work, though not very well; and beautiful embittered Auriol, left with the dog her husband no longer wants. None is exactly what they seem. And when the killing begins, they all have motives. Winter approaches; the nights draw in. The mists roll down and eclipse the moor, and shadowy figures among the trees appear to be watching the houses. Out there, a terrible evil exists.