Irina has always been used to answering for everything herself. And the more helpless she felt when she ended up alone with her little son in a remote village—exactly where she had to hide from the bandits who were in debt because of her former husband. The village is almost deserted, but nearby in the woods there’s a search unit led by Alexander Veretev. Irina and Alexander’s paths might never have crossed, if not for frightening incidents: escaped prisoners from the colony are roaming nearby; searchers found unidentified bodies in the swamp—and it seems the quicksand hides many more dangerous secrets…