In the past: It is September 1939 and thousands of children are being evacuated from London. Among them 12-year-olds Lewis Finch and William Hammond, both billeted on the Surrey estate of the formidable Regina Burne-Jones. Both become allies, then friends, and thus begins a story of choice and betrayal the repercussions of which will echo down the years . . .

In the present: Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are called out to investigate a death in London's East End. A young woman known as Annabelle Hammond has been strangled. Prime suspect is a busker she was seen talking to just before she disappeared. And when he turns out to be Gordon Finch, Duncan decides to investigate events which occurred more than fifty years before.