A child is missing. The terrifying case begins when a well-dressed couple, claiming to be social workers, appear at Brenda Scupham's door, saying they must take her seven-year-old daughter, Gemma, into care after allegations of abuse. Confused and intimidated, Brenda consents. But when the couple, who identify themselves as Mr. Brown and Miss Peterson, fail to bring the child home, Brenda realizes she has made a horrible mistake. Why would anyone want to abduct Gemma Scupham? Clearly she's not a ransom candidate, since she and her mother live in sordid circumstances and poverty. As the days go by with no sign of the child, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and his colleague, Detective Superintendent Gristhorpe, begin to lose hope of finding her alive. It's particularly strange that there were two abductors, a man and a woman. What kind of couple would kidnap and quite possibly murder an innocent child? Banks must also investigate another case - a grisly, cold-blooded murder that leads him to points overseas and back again. Gradually, the two inquiries begin to converge in a fictional web as mesmerizing as it is chillingly entertaining. In this sixth in the acclaimed Yorkshire-based series, award-winning author Peter Robinson gives us the best yet in a crime novel of unusual subtlety and power.