"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness." Nick and David meet at school in South London and soon become inseparable, united by their love of music. In their late teens they form a band, Orfée. At the height of their fame in the early 1980s, David commits an unforgiveable act of betrayal and the band breaks up. Years later, down on his luck, Nick discovers by chance he has a daughter. And that her recent disappearance is the subject of a police investigation. Katie is part of a cult of militant environmentalists, living in a former monastery in southern France and presided over by the enigmatic Seed who never allows himself to be seen. The tasks required of her become ever more frightening and sinister. Sam Pearson, thirteen years old, is being bullied at school. He has only two havens - the role model Nick Swallow provides as he learns to play the bass guitar and the company of his grandmother, once a ballerina, who is sinking further into dementia. Scorched Earth tells the stories of three characters who have never met but who will have a significant influence on each other's life.