My mother made a snap decision. How could we know it would change us forever? 'Brimming with curiosity and wonder.' Irish Times 'Lushly atmospheric.' Daily Mail 'Thoroughly gripping.' Lucy Caldwell 'Brilliant.' Sara Baume Rage. That's the feeling engulfing the car as Ellen's mother swerves over to the hard-shoulder and orders her daughter out onto the roadside. Ignoring the protests of her other children, she accelerates away, leaving Ellen standing on the gravel verge in her school pinafore and knee socks as the light fades. What would you do as you watch your little sister getting smaller in the rear view window? How far would you be willing to go to help her? The Gallagher children are going to find out. This moment is the beginning of a summer that will change everything.

Deena Garvey disappeared in 2004. She left behind a daughter and a sister. Deena's daughter grows up in the country. She learns how to hunt, when to seed the garden, how to avoid making her father angry. Never to ask about her absent mother. Deena's sister stays stuck in the city, getting desperate. She knows the man responsible for her sister's disappearance, but she can't prove it. Not yet. Over fourteen years, four hundred miles apart, these two women slowly begin to unearth the secrets and lies at the heart of their family, and the history of power and control that has shaped them both in such different ways. But can they reach each other in time? And will the truth finally answer the question of their lives: What really happened to Deena Garvey?