In Deerham Hills a girl is missing and another suspected of harming her. An older woman is found dead: murder or suicide? Then there are the terrifying letters sent to Tom Gilroy, another suicide case, and a Peeping Tom. Charmian Daniels, Jennie Melville's policewoman heroine, has all this to cope with: and she meets again the London policeman Robert Ascham, and finds him even more attractive and disturbing than before.