Dr. Clare Hart is summoned to investigate a building site where hundreds of centuries-old skeletons have been found—beneath Gallows Hill, where Cape Town's notorious execution grounds once stood. But she discovers that a woman, recently dead, is hidden among these long-buried bones. Who was the woman in the green silk dress? Who wanted her dead? Who interred her body beside the ancient graves?

As Clare gets closer to revealing the truth about Gallows Hill, she becomes entangled with a fascinating but vulnerable young woman and is drawn into a world of art, desire, and destructive jealousy. Against a backdrop of corporate corruption and seething political tensions, Clare and Riedwaan's complex relationship remains as explosive as ever—and their very lives are at risk, for those who guard the secret of the woman in the silk dress will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.