When a man and a woman claiming to be social workers come to Katy Heath's house and tell her that they need to take away her son Kyle, Katy complies. But when they fail to return her son and are unknown by social services, DCI Alan Banks is quickly drawn into a full-scale search for the missing boy. Why has Kyle been abducted and what are the chances that he can be found alive? When a search of Katy's house reveals a drugs connection and different witnesses - including Kyle's father - begin to contradict Katy's version of events, even Banks begins to question the veracity of Katy's story. Banks pushes DI Helen Morton to get close to Katy, but in the face of problems with her own son, the proximity to Kyle's mother only appears to destabilise the detective. Meanwhile, returning from maternity leave to join the investigation, DS Annie Cabbot believes she has found a credible suspect for Kyle's abduction at his school. Yet to Annie's frustration, Banks appears to be distancing himself from her. With the search becoming ever more desperate, Banks must find a way to reconcile his colleagues conflicting attitudes to children and parenthood, before the hunt for Kyle is too late.
