When a flood exposes the remains of a long-dead baby on the Loney - a desolate stretch of Lancastrian coastline raked by treacherous tides - Smith is catapulted back to his youth and an Easter Catholic pilgrimage to a shrine there. His brother Hanny was mute as a child, and his devout parents hoped for a miracle that would enable him to talk. But the mournful, rain-soaked Loney is full of enigmas for the boys: Miracles. Death. Superstition. Hidden rooms. Their sinister accommodation - a taxidermist's house. The new, younger priest leading the pilgrimage in place of the zealous, ritual-obsessed Father Wilfred, who died in mysterious circumstances. Something terrible is about to happen - something that will stay with Smith forever, no matter how hard he tries to forget...