Abel still lives on the smallholding outside Johannesburg, where he spent most of his life with his disturbed mother. Here he harvests and treats the skins of small animals which he trades for the authentic African and South American masks and tsantsas sold in his gallery in the city. For his fiftieth birthday he has special plans. He wants a new face for himself, one for special occasions. And he is on the lookout for specific tattoos for the covers of his Cosmic Journals. Inspector Ella Neser’s first murder case is that of a young woman with a piece of skin missing from her shoulder.