When a travel writer is stuck on home soil during a pandemic, he meets Kris Rodgers, one of Britain's eminent metal detectorists. Dipping a toe in the hobby, Nigel finds himself swept up in the world beneath the surface. Scouring the country in search of treasure and the best detectorists, he finds himself more immersed in the culture than he bargained for and makes his own personal journey from cynicism to obsession in his trail through the heartlands of metal detecting.