One autumn night in 1992, young trapeze artist Maria's circus career is cut short by a sickening fall. Later investigation reveals sabotage, but by then the ramshackle Southern Cross Circus has folded, and it's garrulous ring master and owner fled to Spain. And the prime suspect in the possible crime, Maria's boyfriend, has disappeared without trace, never to be seen again. After a chance encounter with Maria decades afterwards, private investigator John "Slim" Hardy sets out to uncover the truth. But what starts out as a minor investigation soon spirals out of control into a case of multiple murder, and a series of events that still leave their mark more than thirty years later. In the glare of the circus lights, Slim could be facing his most complex investigation yet.