Aboriginal detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen, BAD KARMA) is summoned to the outback ranching town of Patterson hot on the heels of a solo bust of a biker bang that has given him the negative professional reputation of a "cowboy." Local senior police sergeant Emma James (Judy Davis, MY BRILLIANT CAREER) has requested help from the city after a fruitless two day search for local athletic star Marley Thompson (Aaron L. McGrath, JASPER JONES) who had been working on a large cattle station on break from his football club when the truck in which he was making his rounds was discovered abandoned on the land of rancher Tim Ballantyne (Colin Friels, DARKMAN) by Dutch backpacker Eric (THE CODE's Benjamin Hoetjes) and Scottish (Jessica Falkholt). Emma is less than pleased when Jay's investigative skills show up her team to have bungled the initial investigation, causing them to misconstrue what now seems like an abduction for a simple missing persons case; however, they soon discover that two young men have gone missing from the vehicle, the other being Reese Dale (Connor Van Vuuren) who was fired by Tim the week before, only for the detectives to then discover that Reese is not who he said he was. Further complicating the case is the discovery of drugs and the possibility of drug dealing besmirching the reputation of the town hero, the release of Marley's uncle Larry (Wayne Blair, EMU RUNNER) after a ten year sentence for child molestation, his victim Shevorne (WENTWORTH's Tasia Zalar) concealing from the police her relationship with Reese, the evasiveness of Marley's mother Kerry (OFFSPRING's Deborah Mailman) and town aboriginal council chief Keith Groves (Ernie Dingo, CROCODILE DUNDEE II) intervening in town affairs, the arrival of a young woman (Rosy Riley) claiming to be Reese's girlfriend from his other life, Marley's girlfriend Jaz (Teresa Moore) who seems unperturbed by him missing, and the arrival of Jay's teenage daughter Crystal (Madeleine Madden, AROUND THE BLOCK) who is hiding her own troubles from her father and mother Mary (Tasma Walton, SUBTERANO). With Jay's maddening habit of going off on his own investigations, Emma thinks that he is too much of an outsider and that his brusk manner in handling the locals is a detriment; however, Emma may be too close to matters, what with her friendship with Shevorne and enmity with Kerry for arresting Larry, as well as her brother Tim trying to offload the ranch to the highest bidder with the aboriginal council among the interested parties despite the presence on the property of the Black Springs aquifer and its hidden tragic history. A television spinoff of the Ivan Sen feature films MYSTERY ROAD and GOLDSTONE starring Pedersen as Jay Swan, MYSTERY ROAD the series has more running time to people a case full of twists with a large cast of characters and subplots, but it balances the elements deftly (including the lives of modern Indigenous Australians and the more veiled forms of discrimination they encounter, even those who are considered one of "the good ones"). Even if one of the villains becomes obvious in their understated characterization and deployment throughout the plot, the path towards the solution makes for compelling viewing.