When Cal Sounder gets a call to say that an unknown woman has washed up dead in a faded seaside down, he dives back into his former role as a detective. Intriguingly, the call comes from the matriarch of a local dynasty, Martha Erskine, a Titan who is almost as old and as powerful as Stefan Tonfamecasca, the man who discovered the drug. As Cal begins investigating, he becomes convinced that the victim's death may be connected to the strikes and wage disputes that the Erskines are fighting off at their huge manufacturing plant nearby - and what Martha wants to know is whether her family are involved in the young woman's death.