Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago cop, moves to the rural West of Ireland and begins renovating a run-down stone house.

Cal catches a young spy on his property; the child bites his hand and escapes before Cal can identify them.

A thirteen-year-old named Trey confesses that his older brother Brendan has been missing for six months and begs Cal to investigate.

Cal visits the local police station and finds the officer dismissively assumes Brendan Reddy simply left town on his own.

Brendan's college-attending friend Eugene reveals that Brendan got into serious trouble by overestimating his ability to execute a risky scheme.

Cal meets Brendan's ex-girlfriend Caroline at her souvenir shop job; she vouches for Brendan's character and hints the town has been silenced.

Cal confronts local troublemaker Donie McGrath at his home, accusing him of working for a Dublin drug ring involved in Brendan's disappearance.

Mart casually informs Cal that Trey is a girl named Theresa, not the boy Cal had assumed all along.

Cal tells Trey a fabricated story about Brendan being scared off by Dublin criminals and orders her to stop visiting his house.

Trey returns to Cal's door badly beaten, revealing that an unknown group threatened her mother into administering the beating.

A group attacks Cal outside his home with hurleys, breaking his collarbone and ordering him to stop asking questions about Brendan.

Trey emerges from Cal's house with a rifle and shoots one of Cal's attackers in the arm, driving the group away.

Mart confesses to Cal that he and a group of local men accidentally killed Brendan during a confrontation that got out of hand.

Cal and Mart climb into the mountains and reach the bog where Mart's group buried Brendan's body months earlier.

Cal gives Trey her brother Brendan's watch as proof of his death and tells her she can show Sheila the burial location.

Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago cop, arrives in rural West Ireland seeking a quiet life but is pulled into a mystery when a determined teenager named Trey asks him to find her missing brother Brendan. Despite resistance from local police and a community that seems strangely unwilling to discuss the case, Cal pursues leads through Brendan's friends and his ex-girlfriend. After being warned off repeatedly and uncovering a Dublin drug connection through the local troublemaker Donie McGrath, Cal is physically attacked by the gang and saved only when Trey shoots one of the assailants. Cal's neighbor Mart eventually confesses that he and a group of local men accidentally killed Brendan in a confrontation, and Cal travels to the bog where the body is buried. The case ends in an uneasy peace, with Cal giving Trey her brother's watch as proof of what happened and quietly beginning to rebuild a life in Ardnakelty.

The headline events of Cal's investigation into Brendan's disappearance.

Cal's neighbor Mart Lavin jokes about the local shopkeeper Noreen's persistent plan to set Cal up with her widowed sister Lena.

Locals at the pub discuss a sheep belonging to farmer Bobby that was found killed and disemboweled under mysterious circumstances.

Cal meets Noreen's widowed sister Lena for the first time at the village convenience store, both of them fully aware of Noreen's scheme.

Cal returns home from visiting Lena's farm to find that someone has let all the air out of his tires.

Cal visits the Reddy family home on the mountainside under the pretense of hiring Brendan to do electrical rewiring work.

Cal interviews Brendan's friend Fergal O'Connor, who politely repeats his assumption that Brendan will eventually return on his own.

Mart informs Cal that the mysterious sheep killings in the area began around the same time that Brendan disappeared.

Cal teaches Trey to shoot his shotgun and Trey excitedly puts a hole in a beer can on the first attempt.

Cal gets extremely drunk on homemade poteen at the local pub alongside the regulars at Seán Óg's.

Trey draws Cal a map leading to the remote abandoned mountain cottage that Brendan used as a private hideout.

Cal calls Lena to his house to help nurse the badly injured Trey, and the two grow closer while caring for her.

Cal sneaks into Donie McGrath's house while Donie sleeps and pins him down to force a confession about Brendan.

Cal takes the contact number for the Dublin gang's ringleader Austin from Donie's burner phone before leaving his house.

Mart tells Cal that the local men buried Brendan's body in the mountains after the fatal confrontation ended his life.

Cal texts Lena to say he will take her puppy after all, and the two agree to see each other.

Before Cal ever agrees to help Trey, his introduction to Ardnakelty is shaped by the chatty neighbor Mart and the matchmaking shopkeeper Noreen, who persistently tries to set him up with her widowed sister Lena. The mysterious sheep killings that unsettle the community provide an early undercurrent of unease, while Cal's quiet friendship with Trey grows through shared tasks like shooting practice and piecing together Brendan's movements. The investigation deepens when someone lets down Cal's tires as a warning, and a late-night confrontation with Donie allows Cal to extract key details about Brendan's drug scheme and obtain the gang leader's number. With Trey battered at his door, Cal calls on Lena for help and the two grow closer while caring for her together. The story closes with Cal texting Lena to accept her puppy and agreeing to see her, a quiet signal that he is ready to stop running from connection.

The secondary moments and relationships that shaped the investigation.

Cal finds footprints outside his window and feels the old neck-prickling instinct from his cop days warn him of danger.

Trey tells Cal that the village already knows he was a former cop, exposing his failed attempt to keep his past hidden.

Trey overturns the freshly sanded desk in a rage when Cal explains why he cannot investigate Brendan's disappearance.

Mart reports to Cal that one of his sheep was found with its eyes removed, escalating fear about the mysterious attacks.

Mart arranges for a local man named Locky to do Cal's electrical rewiring, effectively removing Cal's cover story for the investigation.

Cal realizes after leaving the pub that the whole drunken evening was a coordinated effort to warn him off Brendan's case.

Sheila Reddy gives Cal a frightened look when asked if she has heard from Brendan, revealing she too has been warned into silence.

Cal explores Brendan's hidden mountain cottage and finds it unexpectedly clean and organized, completely revising his view of Brendan's character.

Trey reveals that Donie McGrath confronted and threatened her directly, warning she would end up like Brendan if she kept searching.

Lena refuses to go upstairs to Trey in the night, insisting that Trey needs Cal's consistent presence and not a substitute caretaker.

Donie confesses that Brendan stole anhydrous from a local farmer and prepared a cottage as a drug supply depot for the Dublin crew.

Lena arrives at Cal's house with her dog after the hurley attack, armed and ready to keep watch through the night.

Cal spots a bloodstained towel under Mart's dining table and uses it to press Mart into a full confession about Brendan.

Cal discovers Brendan's body perfectly preserved in the mountain bog, with a broken jaw visible from the fight that killed him.

Cal tells Mart directly that Trey will keep visiting his house, and Mart agrees to ensure the community raises no objections.

From the moment Cal's old cop instincts flare at the sight of footprints outside his window, the novel builds through a series of revelations that gradually expose the truth buried beneath Ardnakelty's surface. Trey's rage when Cal refuses to help, and the discovery that the village already knows Cal's history as a policeman, signal that nothing in the community is as it appears. The coordinated efforts of the local men to sideline Cal's investigation — from Mart's arrangement of a substitute handyman to the silencing of Sheila Reddy — are slowly unmasked as deliberate cover-up. Brendan's clean and organized hidden cottage overturns the town's contemptuous image of him, while Donie's forced confession reveals the full shape of Brendan's doomed scheme. Mart's final confession, drawn out by a bloodstained towel spotted under his dining table, leads Cal to the preserved body in the bog and removes all doubt about what happened. Cal closes the story not with a formal arrest but with a negotiated peace, securing Trey's place in his life on his own terms.

The key discoveries and decisions that slowly unraveled the truth about Brendan.