Ward Hopkins, a former CIA agent, is shocked by the terrible news: his mother and father are killed in a car accident. He has almost come to terms with the blow of fate when he suddenly discovers a cache in his father's chair with a note: "We are not dead". Then a mysterious video comes into his hands .. It was then that he first heard the phrase about "salt people". Meanwhile, fourteen-year-old girls are missing in different parts of the country. The kidnappers have one thing in common: each time the kidnapper throws the parents a sweater of the missing daughter, on which her name is embroidered. And instead of threads, the victim's hair is used. And again, in connection with each of the crimes, this strange expression pops up: "straw people". Marshall's novel is an absolutely unique phenomenon in the world of modern detective. This large-scale thriller immediately brought the writer to the leading masters of the genre.