Child psychologist Dr Alex Delaware returns after five years to Los Angeles' Western Pediatrics Hospital, called in by a former colleague to help with the case of twenty-one-month-old Cassie Jones. The little girl is persistently, terrifyingly ill, and nobody can explain why. Her doctor, Stephanie Eves, has finally come to suspect the unthinkable - that Cassie's own mother is deliberately trying to make her own child sick. But Stephanie needs an independent assessment of the Jones family, for Cassie Jones is none other than the granddaughter of the Chairman of the Board. Teaming up once again with his old friend Detective Milo Sturgis, Alex starts to investigate Western Pediatric's First Family, but rapidly uncovers layer after layer of high-level corruption and intrigue concerning the hospital itself. Added to which are the brutal killings of two members of the staff. Most importantly, Alex must find the answers to some intensely private questions about the workings of one family, with all its intimate deceits and murderous hatreds. For at any given time, young Cassie Jones could be back at Western Pediatrics fighting for her life..