One moment of madness is all it takes for security chief Tracy Waterhouse's humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn Witnesses to Tracy's Faustian exchange in the Merrion Centre in Leeds are Tilly, an elderly actress teetering on the brink of her own disaster, and Jackson Brodie who has returned to his home county in search of someone else's roots All three characters learn that the past is never history and that no good deed goes unpunished