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Intro
Australian financial crimes police officer Aaron Falk travels from Melbourne back to his original hometown of Kiewarra, a small farming community suffering from a prolonged drought. Falk’s childhood friend Luke Hadler has just died, along with his wife (Karen) and son (Billy), although his infant daughter (Charlotte) survived. Most people in town believe that Luke shot his family with a shotgun and then killed himself while sitting on the edge of the cargo bed of his ute. Luke’s parents, Gerry and Barb, want to know the truth about Luke’s death, and this is why Falk has returned to Kiewarra: Gerry called Falk and sent a note requesting him to come to Luke’s funeral. After the funeral, Gerry and Barb convince Falk to stay in town for a few days to investigate the murder.
Falk finds himself unwelcome in his old hometown because many people still believe he played a role in the murder of Ellie, a girl who drowned in the river under mysterious circumstances 20 years ago. Falk, Luke, Ellie, and Gretchen were all close friends back when they were 16 years old. When Ellie died, investigators found a note on it that said “Falk” on it in her room, along with the date of her death, leading many to believe that she had met up with Falk just before her untimely death. This caused Ellie’s father, Deacon, to make threats against Falk and his father Erik Falk, physically chasing the two of them out of Kiewarra.
In the present, when Falk comes back to Kiewarra to investigate the Hadler family murders, Deacon still holds a grudge but has become older and frailer. Deacon’s nephew Dow, however, is physically fit and threatens Falk to try to get him to leave. Still, Falk does find some allies in Kiewarra, including Sergeant Raco, the new head of the police station who senses something unusual about the Hadler case and goes above and beyond his job duties to try to find the answer, in part because seeing the room where Luke’s young son Billy died deeply affected him. Falk also reconnects with his old friend Gretchen, and the two of them start a romantic relationship.
While investigating the Hadler case, Sergeant Raco and Falk go to the murder scene, talk to witnesses, and look into other leads around Kiewarra. One of the first clues Raco shows Falk is that the shotgun shells used to kill the Hadlers were Remingtons—but Luke only kept Winchesters on his farm, meaning the shells must have come from somewhere else.
The farm’s surveillance footage only seems to show Luke’s ute approaching the farm in the timeframe during which the murder took place, without any other vehicles coming in or out. Falk and Raco search other surveillance footage around town, including at the local school where Karen worked. Principal Whitlam shows them around, and they see how rundown the school has become as a result of the drought and the hard years before it.
While watching security footage, Falk and Raco happen to see Jamie Sullivan—the last man to see Luke alive—in a location that contradicts his alibi. Sullivan and Luke were culling rabbits shortly before Luke died, but Sullivan claimed he was at home with his Gran for the rest of the evening. But as Falk and Raco investigate this lead, they ultimately learn that Sullivan was having a secret relationship with the local doctor, Dr. Leigh, and that neither was involved with the murder.
As Falk continues his investigation, an unknown person vandalizes his car and threatens to hurt him. He discovers a note in one of Karen’s old library books that has the word “Grant” on it, along with Falk’s number, suggesting perhaps that Karen wanted to contact him about Grant Dow. He also discovers while visiting Gretchen that a photograph seems to imply that Luke was the father of Gretchen’s young son Lachie. Gretchen admits that she is hurt that Luke chose Karen over her, but she angrily denies that Luke is Lachie’s father or that she had anything to do with the murder, then she kicks Falk out.
Ultimately, Falk has a breakthrough when he learns from the local bartender, McMurdo, that the local principal Whitlam has a heavy gambling problem. He realizes that the “Grant” Karen wrote about on her note wasn’t referring to a person. In fact, “grant” was referring to a grant the school had received—from which Whitlam was embezzling money. Falk and Raco coordinate with a larger police department in the nearby town of Clyde to arrest Whitlam, but Whitlam someone in the department accidentally tips off Whitman, and he makes a run for it.
Falk and Raco search the town before eventually finding Whitlam in a dry wooded area. Whitlam has a lighter and some alcohol and threatens to use them to start a wildfire that could take the whole town down. After trying and failing to convince Whitlam with words, Whitlam starts a fire. Falk and Raco charge Whitlam and try to put the fire out with their jackets.
Falk, Raco, and Whitlam all end up with serious burns but survive. By the time Falk feels better, most people have forgotten their negative opinions about him. Falk makes amends with Gretchen, but their relationship seems to be over. Before returning to Melbourne, Falk returns to an old hiding place he remembers from his youth and finds that Ellie left her diary there. In her diary, she confirms what some people suspected: that her father Deacon was abusing her. A flashback reveals that Deacon murdered Ellie when he found out she planned to leave and that Dow witnessed the murder. Falk sits in silence with the diary for a while, then he heads back to town.
