When John Blessing dies and leaves behind two small children, the loss reverberates across his extended family for years to come.

The epic story of a priest torn between God and human passion and a beautiful girl desiring only what she cannot have, spanning five decades of ambition, fear, longing and revenge, and set against the vast horizons of Australia's Outback.

In the year 666, Sister Fidelma goes to a remote valley whose inhabitants still adhere to ancient Druidic ways. As they approach the valley, Fidelma and her companion come across the bodies of 33 young men ritually killed and laid out in a Druidic pattern. Are these murders the work of the local pagans or something more sinister?