The battered body of a young woman is found floating in the still water of an inner-city canal. Police suspect a serial killer, which makes it a case for the newly formed Serious Crime Squad. Not DI Charlie Resnick's case, then; not his worry.

But soon another body is found, and this time Charlie has a personal interest. His lover, Hannah, knew the murdered woman, knew too that her husband was fiercely jealous. And very free with his fists. Arguing that her friend was the victim of domestic abuse, not the target of some anonymous killer, Hannah persuades Charlie to take on the case.

Investigating the murder, Resnick runs head-on into deeply disturbing questions about the nature of love, about the relationship of abuser and abused, and about our complicity in our own destruction.