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.