Newly promoted Detective Chief Superintendent Jane Tennison leads the investigation into the abduction of a 14 month old baby girl, Vicky Warwick, from her crib. The child"s mother, Susan Covington, was knocked unconscious, leaving a nasty gash on her forehead and causing memory loss. Her husband, John Warwick, had left them less than a year ago but appears to have an alibi. Susan had given her nanny, whom she shared with a co-worker, a cellphone, a camera and mace leading Tennison to suspect that Susan was worried about something. She recalls someone she saw in the park, a man with two little girls. When the police learn that a convicted pedophile, Chris Hughes lives just a short distance from where the child was abducted, he becomes their prime suspect. They"re convinced he"s their man when Susan eventually picks him out of a line-up as the man she saw in the park. Only have they got it all wrong.