The day that Jerry Hunt met Charlotte Frost was the day he decided to go straight. Jerry had been running a successful scam with his friend Pete - Jerry sweet-talking the householder at the front door, Pete breaking in at the back - but something in Charlotte's smile made him take stock of his activities. He'd been to prison once and, Jerry decided, he wasn't going to go there again.
In many ways, Charlotte too would like to pull away from her past. Widowed after two years of marriage to her second husband, his mistrustful family are still imposing on her, and when Imogen Frost's parents separate, the troubled girl is sent to stay with her. By chance, Imogen meets Jerry and persuades Charlotte to let him renovate her garden. Slowly, past lies and previous deceits begin to unravel, and on a night one of them will never forget, Charlotte disappears . . .
