Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth, Scotland. After five years in exile, his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston. Even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up.

Stonemouth is an estuary town north of Aberdeen, with a beach that can be beautiful on a sunny day. But on a bleak day, it seems to offer little more than fog, cheap drugs, and gangsters—plus a suspension bridge that promises a permanent way out.

Although there's supposed to be a temporary truce between Stewart and the town's biggest crime family, it's soon clear that only Stewart is taking this promise of peace seriously. As he steps back into the minefield of his past to confront his guilt and all that it has lost him, Stu uncovers ever darker stories. His homecoming takes a more lethal turn than even he had anticipated.

Tough, funny, fast-paced, and touching, Stonemouth cracks open adolescence, love, brotherhood, and vengeance in a rite of passage novel like no other.