Kate Harris, a lecturer in her late thirties, is attacked in her home and left for dead. This terrible assault and the anonymous hate letters she starts to receive bring to light the past she'd prefer to leave behind, a past which includes the son she bore in her teenage years and whom she chose to give away.

What happens to Kate also affects the people she counts as friends and colleagues now. She has been in love with her best friend, Nicky, for a long time but Nicky is happily married with two young children and Kate is determined never to upset the lives of those she cares for.

However, when she makes the momentous decision to contact the father of her long-forgotten son, and then to trace her son as well, Kate inadvertently sets in motion a series of frightening events she seems to have no control over. Can she protect herself and those she loves from the menacing enemy who stalks them all?