Inspector Rebus's closest assistant is attacked. Victim in a coma, Rebus puzzles over the encrypted entries in his notebook, trying to get on the trail of the criminals. There are too many traces, they all stretch from the past, then an unsolved case about a fire in a hotel comes to light, from the fog of mysteries emerges the dark ghost of a local “authority”, racketeers, liquidators, gamblers, a pedophile, a not-quite-dead restaurateur - a fan of Elvis Presley and a hypnotist who served time - Rebus's brother. How to tie up loose ends, how to solve a tricky rebus that many would prefer not to solve - including, perhaps, the Rebus itself?..