The gruesome murder of a homeless teenage boy suggests a methodical serial killer is at work in Walvis Bay, a depressed port, isolated in the vast sweep of the Namib Desert. Corrupt and claustrophobic, the shifting population of Walvis Bay consists of transients and vagabonds – people with no future and no past. When it seems that the serial killer may be working undetected in this pit of darkness and desperation, investigative journalist and criminal profiler Dr Clare Hart is brought in to investigate. Tangled up in her own doomed love affair, Clare is happy for the distraction – until it becomes clear that it is really her life at stake.