When forensic pathologist Dr Anya Crichton finds a dead child covered in blood and stuffed into a toy box, her thoughts immediately turn to murder. Then the post mortem reveals that the girl died from a deadly bacterial infection brought on by food poisoning. But does that mean Anya can rule out foul play? Anya was only meant to be in Tasmania for a conference and to visit her mother, but when more people fall sick, including her father"s cousin, Anya becomes intimately involved in the case. At the same time, her mother - with whom Anya has always had a difficult relationship ever since her little sister Miriam went missing thirty years ago - is acting strangely, talking about conspiracies and exhibiting classic signs of dementia. As Anya deals with her increasingly paranoid mother, she is also racing to discover the source of the fatal bacterial infection. But Anya"s investigations into the close-knit Tasmanian agricultural community where the contaminated food originated soon...