In the past: It is September 1939 & thousands of children are being evacuated from London. Among them 12-year-olds Lewis Finch & William Hammond both billeted on the Surrey estate of the formidable Regina Burne-Jones. Both become allies then friends & thus begins a story of choice & betrayal the repercussions of which will echo down the years... In the present: Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James are called out to investigate a death in Londons East End. A young woman known as Annabelle Hammond has been strangled. Prime suspect is a busker she was seen talking to just before she disappeared. & when he turns out to be Gordon Finch Duncan decides to investigate events which occurred more than fifty years before.