Set against the backdrop of a prestigious private school, a foreboding forest and the quiet sprawl of Bristol, local Headmaster Michael Polly becomes the prime suspect in his wife Sarah’s disappearance. An upstanding member of the community, Michael is inscrutable and likes order and precision in his working life, but then he encounters gutsy Detective Annie Cassidy and a compulsive game of cat and mouse begins as she chips away at his veneer in search of the truth.