A young English couple in search of an easier life in the sun, a German hippie with a singing dog, a UK property developer, a Portuguese waiter, a showgirl at the casino, a drug dealer, an old widow in the mountains and a fisherman's son are just some of the memorable cast of characters that inhabit these interlinking stories. Minor characters in some stories become protagonists in others in this rich tapestry of life in the Algarve in the summer of 2007 when a little girl went missing.