Summoned to a remote island off the coast of Scotland by a report claiming a young girl, Rowan Morrison, has gone missing, West Highland Constabulary Sergeant Neil Howie finds himself far from any reality he’s ever known, due to the strange customs and people of the island, called Summerisle. A god-fearing, Christian man in every way, Howie is put off, then shocked by the the island’s free-thinking, sexually explicit ways. He refuses the advances of Willow, a landlord’s daughter, and threatens to arrest Miss Rose, a schoolteacher, for discussing phallic symbols. Summerisle, Howie comes to understand, believes only in gods of fertility, and pagan ways, as overseen by Lord Summerisle, a tall, imposing chap with a fantastic house and even snappier wardrobe. When no one can seem to recall having met or seen Rowan, Howie’s investigation leads down a series of increasingly strange dead ends. And as May Day approaches, he becomes increasingly convinced that he has become the subject of a bizarre, dangerous game.