Jake Cullen, fourteen, lives in the shadows of his father and older brother until he becomes the starting quarterback for the high school football team and finally has his chance to shine.

It's a long hot summer on the French Mediterranean shore and at the Perpignan police headquarters, Sebag and Molino are being slowly devoured by dull routine, petty complaints and family worries. Out of the blue a young Dutch woman is brutally murdered on a beach at Argelès, and another disappears without a trace. A serial killer obsessed with Dutch women? Maybe. But there is more to this case than anyone suspects.