The scene is set in Cambridge, with three case histories from the past: A young child who mysteriously disappeared from a tent in her back garden An unidentified man in a yellow jumper who marched into an office and slashed a young girl through the throat and a young woman found by the police sitting in her kitchen next to the body of her husband, an axe buried in his head. Jackson Brodie, a private investigator and former police detective, is quietly contemplating life as a divorced father when he is flung into the midst of these resurrected old crimes. Julia and Amelia Land, long having given up hope of uncovering the truth of what happened to their baby sister, Olivia, suddenly discover her lost toy mouse in the study of their recently-deceased father.