A teenage boy is beaten to death on Dimmock's derelict pier. Detective Jack Deacon is convinced they have the murderer; he just needs a positive identification to lock him up for good. But the only witness is astronomer Daniel Hood, in his own way a man as determined as Jack. Compelling as the circumstantial evidence is against the suspected killer, Daniel cannot be certain that this was the man he saw from his window. Nothing anybody says - or does...