Rob is a detective with the Murder Squad. He doesn't realize it, but his choice of profession has a lot to do with a traumatic experience he endured at the age of twelve, exactly twenty-two years ago. He can't remember anything about it - his subconscious has protected him all of these years - but he has been told that he and two friends were abducted after playing in the woods near their homes. His friends disappeared without a trace. Adam was found shivering with his shoes filed with blood. He changed his name, and recalled nothing.
Now he and his partner, Cassie Maddox, are investigating the murder of a twelve year old girl, Katy Devlin, whose corpse has been found in the same woods where Rob was found. Cassie is one of the select few in whom Rob has confided his past trauma, so whe is naturally worried that the case will throw up inevitable emotional issues for Rob. The partners investigate a number of leads. Katy's father was very vocal in his protest of the new highway that was going to be built through the middle of an archaeological dig - possibly someone at the construction company wanted to silence him? Perhaps an archaeology student at the dig saw Katy and killed her. They investigated the family, immediate and extended.
Rob is forced to address the possibility that Katy's death is linked to the disappearance of his friends when a hair accessory that one of them was wearing that day is discovered at the crime scene. The case has Rob going over and over the few facts he can recall, and mulling over the information he was given about his experience. He spends the night in the woods to see if it triggers any memories at all but has a panic attack and has to leave. He goes to Cassie's house because he is afraid that if he goes home alone, and tries to sleep, he will have nightmares. That night they sleep together for the first time.
As the investigation opens up, the relationship between Rob and Cassie closes down. Rob does not want to be in a romance with her but doesn't feel that it's appropriate to go back to the teasing, easygoing relationship they used to have either. They can't communicate like they used to and so it becomes harder to discuss the case. This also makes investigating it more difficult.
The archaeological dig site is going to be closed down soon so that the road can be built. Students are working overtime to dig out as much as they can before this happens. Rob has a sudden epiphany, and with the help of the forensics team, confirms that Katy was murdered in a small, locked shed at the dig site. After checking he finds out that only three people have access. One of them is a seventeen year old girl named Rosalind, Katy's older sister. When Cassie questions her, it becomes clear very quickly that Rosalind is a psychopath. She enjoys playing mind games with Cassie and tells her that it is obvious she and Rob are sleeping together. Cassie realizes that the best way to get the truth out of Rosalind is to give her what she wants - confirmation of this and promise to keep her updated on Katy's case, as long as she promises to keep quiet about Cassie and Rob's relationship.
Making a co-conspirator out of Rosalind is the key to opening her up. Feeling that Cassie cannot do anything to her, for fear of having her relationship with Rob revealed, Rosalind starts to brag about masterminding her sister's murder. She told her boyfriend that she, and her two sisters, were all being sexually abused by their father, but that Katy enjoyed it, and had ganged up on the other two girls by telling their father to beat them. Rosalind admits to telling her boyfriend that if Katy were gone she and her sister would be free, and be able to find a way to be happy. Rosalind didn't like Katy because she would not do what Rosalind told her to do. Rosalind decided to try to poison her to make her sick as a punishment.
Cassie has been recording everything that Rosalind has told her; she is released, because she is is under eighteen years of age and any confession made without the presence of an adult is invalid. Cassie knows Rosalind will kill again.
As for Rob and Cassie, they are separated by Superintendent O'Kelly, once he finds out that Rob is really Adam. He transfers him to a desk job and out of the Murder Squad, where Cassie stays, only to begin dating another detective, whom she later marries. Rob is devastated.
