When fifteen-year-old Marilyn Howe turns up alone and frightened on Inspector Ramsay\'s doorstep he has little choice but to invite her in. .. .
Then a woman\'s body is washed up on the beach .
And for the second time he is drawn into the strange relationships of the families living on the lonely Headland.
Until he receives news that Mrs Howe has disappeared once more.
Six months later, Ramsay has more or less forgotten the strange incident, busy as he is on the trail of a local child abductor.
And in the Howes\' dark and cluttered kitchen they find Kathleen safe and apparently well, though acting rather mysteriously.
Ramsay takes the young girl home, to the isolated coastal community known as the Headland.
But Kathleen has unaccountably failed to return home that evening, and Marilyn is fearful for her mother\'s safety.
Marilyn and her mother, Kathleen, are a familiar sight around Heppleburn, a strangely inseparable couple.
When fifteen-year-old Marilyn Howe turns up alone and frightened on Inspector Ramsay\'s doorstep he has little choice but to invite her in
