Amelia Hartliss is called 'Heartless' by her friends and foes alike, and with good reason. But at least she has always had the assurance, up to now, that she was doing wrong for the right reason. Now she isn't so sure: she has been forced by her boss to infiltrate a conspiracy at the top level of local government, development organisations and health bodies in the North of England, and the depths of depravity sicken her, despite her many years of experience and a feeling she had that she had 'seen everything'. Not quite; human beings have an unlimited capacity to disappoint, as one victim puts it, and Melia has to use all her determination and ingenuity to foil a dastardly terrorist plot to poison the water supply of a major city. But worse, the conspirators are poisoning the minds of the local population too, and turning them against the weakest members of society. It's truly sickening.