In quiet, peaceful Bamford, a monstrous crime is committed: a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl is brutally murdered. Senior Inspector Alan Markby is stunned—could his home little town really have changed so much that its streets became dangerous for children? He has no idea that this is only the beginning of a chain of utterly inexplicable tragic events. Meredith Mitchell, a close friend of the inspector, as always, is energetic and not prone to despair. Largely thanks to her intuition and courage, the difficult criminal puzzle is finally solved.