Caught by the current, her body tumbles this way and that in the black waters of the River Maze, dragged inexorably forward, her long dark hair trailing out behind her. For days she continues on, unseen, making a lonely passage through villages and marshes, until, at last, her journey comes to an end in a tangle of debris washed down with the flood waters. Laura Ackroyd, the journalist girlfriend of DCI Michael Thackeray, becomes drawn into the plight of Julie Holden and her daughter Anna when she writes an article about domestic abuse. Suffering violence at the hands of her husband, Julie takes flight to a women's refuge. But her dreams of safety are shattered when young Anna goes missing.