A middle-aged couple are stabbed to death in their home at the end of a quaint country lane in England's bucolic Midlands, and their teenage daughter goes missing.
Several villagers report seeing a strange young man in the area.
As chief reporter for the small-scale local newspaper, Alison Akenside has a natural interest in the case. This interest deepens to something more when a composite of the unknown man turns out to be the image of Alison's brother. Eventually, one of Alison's childhood acquaintances, a dim-witted young man, tips her off to the whereabouts of the missing daughter. No way, Reginald. You'll have to read the book.