When the body of a young girl washes up on Bondi Beach there appears little hope of finding the killer, until Robin discovers that ‘China Girl’ didn’t die alone. Robin looks to the investigation to restore herself, but her problems are personal. Haunted by a daughter given up at birth, Robin desperately wants to find her, yet dreads revealing the truth of her conception.

But her search to discover China Girl’s identity will take her into the city’s darkest recesses and closer than she could have imagined to the secrets of her own heart.

The combination of a new location and the dynamics of her relationships in this new story push Robin into new terrain, as she follows unexpected leads and digs deeper within herself to solve this new, darkly disturbing case and uncover the identity of China Girl.

Her assigned police partner Miranda (Gwendoline Christie) is an unwanted and yet unexpectedly forceful catalyst in pushing Robin to face her darkest demons, while the connection with her daughter Mary (Alice Englert) is wrought with complexities, as the girl’s enigmatic older boyfriend Puss (David Dencik) is a provocateur with links to the ‘China Girl’ mystery.

Mary’s adoptive parents Julia (Nicole Kidman) and Pyke (Ewen Leslie) bring their own human dramas into Robin’s world, as she maps a road through a much longed-for connection with her daughter.

Top Of The Lake: China Girl is produced by See-Saw Films for BBC Two.

It airs on BBC Two from Thursday 27 July at 9pm. The full series will be available on BBC iPlayer from 10pm on Thursday 27 July.

Character descriptions

Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss)
Detective Robin Griffin has eturned to Sydney to rebuild her life. Broken and fragile, she is convinced that her work will restore her but is haunted by the daughter she gave up at birth. Robin’s search to discover ‘China Girl’s’ identity takes her into the city’s dark recesses and also deep into the secrets of her own heart. As she gets to know Mary and grapples with the push and pull of this new relationship, her fears grow about the danger Mary may be in, but her hopes also rise about the possibility of a new kind of love.

Mary Edwards (Alice Englert)
Mary was adopted by Julia and Pyke when she was two days old. A beloved only child, she wrote to Robin when she was 12, hoping for a reply, but one never came and for years she has struggled with this rejection. Now a mercurial 17 year-old who is determined to chart her own path, Mary is swept up in a thrilling relationship with a much older man, Alexander, whom she plans to marry.

Julia Edwards (Nicole Kidman)
Julia is Mary’s adoptive mother. A secondary school teacher, her fierce, controlling love for her daughter has put them on a collision course, intensified by the fact that Julia has recently fallen in love with a woman and moved out of the family home. As she and Pyke disentangle their lives, Julia is struggling to figure out how to hold on to a difficult teenage daughter who seems to hate her.

Miranda Hilmarson (Gwendoline Christie)
Miranda is an eager new recruit in the Sydney Police force and a fan of Robin’s, whose reputation proceeds her. She is thrilled to be partnered with Robin but can’t seem to get anything right and her open-hearted directness clashes with Robin’s self-contained distance. As the investigation unfolds their partnership surprises both women, and Miranda becomes a forceful catalyst in pushing Robin to face her demons.

Alexander Braun - Puss (David Dencik)
A former academic from East Germany in his early 40s, the charming, charismatic Puss sees himself as a Robin Hood engaged in a provocative life of authentic class warfare. He is generous and kindly to the girls in the brothel he lives above, but as Mary forges a friendship with Robin, the depths of his emotional sadism begin to show.

Pyke Edwards (Ewen Leslie)
Pyke is a successful lawyer and Mary’s adoptive father. A man of integrity and courage, he is calmly working through the separation with Julia, determined to do whatever it takes to keep his daughter close.

Watch the trailer for Season One below;