In 1944, in war-torn Europe, a fifteen year old boy watches as his village his razed to the ground. From his hiding place high in a tree, he also witnesses the brutal murder of his childhood sweetheart by a soldier not much older than himself. Decades later, his terrible memories are revived when, by chance, he recognizes the soldier. From that moment, he devotes himself to destroying his enemy, by stealth and from afar. Until one fateful early summer morning in Oxford, the two men once again come face to face....then seemingly disappear without a trace. As young policewoman Juliet Furbo frantically searches for the missing men, she begins to uncover the disturbing connection between them.

Buller Reynolds was murdered on 31 may 1941, the night central Dublin was bombed. Fifty years on, elderly Lily Sweetman - a child witness of that long ago murder - is killed. A hit and run accident? Lily's daughter Nell doesn't think so. There are too many similarities to that ancient crime. But now Nell has stepped into mortal danger....