Fifteen-year-old Nicky Snape, a chronic trouble-maker, is found hanging from the shower of the children's home while in custody on suspicion of murder, and it appears that his death may not have been suicide as the police would like to believe.
Retired Detective Inspector Frank Elder's solitary life is disrupted when his estranged wife calls to tell him their seventeen-year-old daughter, Katherine, is running wild after being unbalanced by the abduction and rape Frank feels he should have prevented.
