Independent Edinburgh, 2026 - and renegade investigator Quintilian Dalrymple faces his toughest case yet. The birth-rate is down in the Council\'s \'perfect city\' and gangs of disaffected kids roam the streets. A break-in at the former Scottish Parliament archive is rapidly followed by two gruesome murders, the victims mutilated and covered with blood-drenched branches. Before Quint can stop the roots of violence spreading Edinburgh\'s brightest teenagers are abducted to the much-feared democratic city-state of Glasgow. And what Quint finds there will change his life forever...