When her husband, Simon - a flamboyant conductor - kills himself, Alex is mortified that she failed to see it coming. Confused, guilt-ridden and grieving, she escapes to Hillen Hall, an old house by the coast in Devon, abandoning her classical singing career and distancing herself from everyone but her sister Erica. Hillen Hall, inherited by Simon from his mother and once a fine manor house, is now creaking and unloved. When Theo Hellyon, Simon's cousin, turns up at her door, offering to help with its renovation, Alex is perplexed and intrigued, previously unaware that Simon even had a...

The tragedy tore them apart. How does a family survive the loss of a child?

Alone again, desperate to pick up the pieces of her life, Claire returns to Bohenna, the small Cornish village where she grew up, married and had her children. It's five years since nine-year-old Gilly disappeared without trace, taken by a summer visitor.

Old rsentments run deep though and not everyone is pleased to see her. Bohenna's a insular place, all gossip and rumour and intertwined lives.

And what if Gilly wasn't taken by a tourist? Claire's increasingly convinced she never left the...