Christmas week brings the Straw Men to Carraig Dubh, masked mummers going from house to house in straw disguises worn beyond all recognition.
On St. Stephen's night, one of them is found dead in the lane behind the chapel. When the mask is removed, the island discovers a stranger beneath it: a mainland auctioneer's valuer who had no known reason to be there, wearing a costume that had hung in the community hall that morning.
Róise Gallagher follows a trail through the shop ledger, the post office counter, parcels sent to a mainland dealer, and the strict traditions that govern who wore which mummers' costume and when. The dead man had been quietly cataloguing the contents of old island houses, and one overlooked object may be worth enough to turn a predatory agreement into tragedy.
