Cape Ore: a small village on the Suffolk coast, shrouded by fog and overlooked by a twelve-mile spit once home to a military base. The community faces economic ruin and struggles to survive.
When DEFRA (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) buys the derelict complex on the spit, locals owe the department a thank you. They don't ask too many questions about what's going on, and they don't care that staff rarely venture into the village.
But when people start dying, livestock falls ill, and a tragic fishing accident occurs in the harbour, they start to question whether their luck has really changed.
Their suspicions are aroused, however, by the discovery of two Russian bird watchers in the local church tower, a glimpse of what is believed to be a submarine surfacing nearby, and a Russian trawler anchored out on the twelve-mile exclusions zone with more aerials than fishing nets.
Nevertheless, life continues until a stranger arrives and people die....