After a medical mishap, Dr Vince Hanrahan crashes professionally and personally, is all but struck off, and the Medical Board kicks him all the way down the Princes Highway to be a rural GP. Supervised. On notice. He rents a dump, lives off takeaway, and plans to see out his time before regaining his rightful position on the specialist pedestal. Vince's old terrors resurface when he sees his young patient dead on the labour ward floor. The investigation declares the cause of death suspicious. Unless he can find out who did it, and why, the Board will come after him. And he’s on his last chance. After another suspicious death, Vince realises that only he can clean up this mess; it’s time to pull his finger out. With the help of the IT-savvy Senior Constable Elena Genovesi and Emu Quick, a dying junkie and drug dealer, he sets up an elaborate, high-risk sting. But even if he can get through this, has Vince lost his old life forever?

Dr Vince Hanrahan is still in exile down on Victoria’s southwest coast, serving out his time before returning to his wife and family and reclaiming his status as a big shot metro OBY/GYN. Well, that’s the plan. If he keeps out of trouble. But trouble has a way of finding Vince. When his only brother commits suicide on the family farm, it looks like drought and isolation have claimed another victim. Or was there another reason? Then there is a local murder and Vince wonders if the two deaths are connected. Driven by guilt about neglecting his brother, he decides he must find out. The quest leads him to the gates of his alma mater, St Bernard’s College in Ballarat. Meanwhile, back in the labour ward, Vince encounters another near catastrophe and saves the day with a risky delivery—a high wire act with no safety net—and his career is threatened. Again. Personally and professionally, he’s facing oblivion. Maybe DC Elena Genovesi can help on both fronts.