A father's worst nightmare. It's first light and George Marshalson's daughter hasn't returned home. He doesn't yet know that she never will — that her body lies prone just yards from the family house. Or that he will himself make the shocking discovery. Chief Inspector Wexford has never known a case of a father finding the murdered body of his daughter. He has daughters of his own but can barely imagine himself in Mr Marshalson's position. Tasked with picking through the pieces of a shattered family, Wexford unearths some surprising secrets about the dead teenager's lifestyle. And when a second girl is found murdered — a victim unquestionably linked to the first — Wexford has to put his own family problems aside to tackle what will become of the most disturbing and emotional case of his career.