Olivia disappeared the night the blackbird died. It was New Years Eve the night that dead blackbirds descended, hours before fourteen year old Alex McCarthy's sister Olivia went missing from a party. Committed to finding out what happened to her sister, within the previously safe walls of their subarctic Orkney village, Alex knows that dishevelled, sometimes intoxicated Detective Inspector Birkens is her best shot. Yet as they uncover the secrets behind Olivia's last night, Alex starts to find things she may be better off never knowing.