When a baby left by her nanny outside the local village co-op store is snatched from its pram, the only potential witness is Mary Mundy, an ex-mental patient discharged from the old asylum.

Mary has spent her entire life institutionalised after being admitted for a pregnancy when she was a young girl and is now living in the community in warden-aided accommodation.

Is it a chance abduction?

The baby is Phoebe Devonshire, the long-awaited only child of Bernard Devonshire, a wealthy building developer, suspected by many of shady practices. He seems more concerned that Chief Inspector Mike Harvey’s investigation into his daughter’s disappearance is more of an intrusion into his own life than a necessity to find his child.

That Bernard has a violent temper is witnessed by his attack on his wife, one intercepted by Detective Sergeant Brendon Flannery, who has zero tolerance for violence against women.

Bernard Devonshire may have unscrupulous business contacts, but he also has friends in high places, and is determined to cause as much trouble for Flannery as he possibly can; although reporting his wife and nanny missing soon backfires, turning the whole investigation into a murder hunt, with some surprising results.