It is a golden evening of high summer.  Walking a ridge on the Welsh Borders, Robin Timariot meets by chance an elegant middle-aged woman who seems strangely out of place.  They exchange only a few words, but those words prove to be unforgettable.  A few days later Timariot learns from the newpapers that, just hours after their meeting, the woman was raped and murdered.

A man is swiftly charged and convicted of the crime, but a string of inexplicable events begins to convince Timariot that all is not what it seems.  Fascinated by the dead woman's memory, he is sucked into the complex motives and tortured relationships of her family and friends, searching against his better judgemnt for the secret of what really happened the day she died.

The closer he gets to the truth, the more hideous and uncertain it seems to be.  And far too late he realizes that anybody who uncovers it is unlikely to be allowed to live.


From the Paperback edition.