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Traces is a suspense-filled crime thriller based on an original idea by best-selling crime writer Val McDermid (Wire In The Blood, A Place Of Execution), written by Amelia Bullmore (Scott & Bailey, This Life) and set in the world of forensic science in Dundee, Scotland.

Emma Hedges (Molly Windsor) is moving to Dundee to start her new job as a lab technician at SIFA. The night before she sets off, a fatal fire breaks out at a Dundee nightclub. The club has been hired for a party, and the manager's niece and another member of staff are unaccounted for.

Sarah Gordon (Laura Fraser), director of the Scottish Institute of Forensic Science and Anatomy (SIFA) and professor of forensic chemistry, and Kathy Torrence (Jennifer Spence), professor of forensic anthropology, meet Emma as she is leaving SIFA for the day. They hope she’s going to do the MOOC - Massive Open Online Course - designed to teach the principles of forensic science using a fictional murder case.

Emma isn’t far into the MOOC before she’s ringing her aunt Julie: it turns out that the 'fictional' victim in the course is her mum, Marie Monroe (Carly Anderson), who was murdered when Emma was seven. No-one has ever been convicted.

With memories of Marie filling her head, Emma finds comfort in childhood friend Skye (Jamie Marie Leary), dad Drew (John Gordon Sinclair) and Skye’s mum Izzy (Laurie Brett). Emma wants to know what happened to her mum, but when Izzy tells her that Marie was dismembered, Emma is horrified. Why has no-one ever told her that before? And why does Drew have a photo of himself in bed with Marie when she was married to Emma’s stepdad Jimmy (Phil McKee)?

Unable to get answers from her family, Emma seeks out Sarah, who offers up her trusted friend DI McKinven (Michael Nardone) as the natural person for Emma to take her revelations to.