In 2011 a young woman is rescued from a burning building in Portsmouth. She has clearly suffered many beatings over a sustained period of time, is pregnant and malnourished. When at last her identity is established, the entire city is horrified to learn that she is Hope Gidson. Hope was the little girl who disappeared fifteen years ago from her family home, aged just 5. However, Hope is in no position to help provide answers. She knows only what she was told by her captors and she trusts no-one. It's the police who have to painstakingly unravel the strands of the many different stories they hear, before they can have a complete picture of where Hope has been, why, and with whom. As more is revealed about the events leading up to the disappearance, it becomes clear that the secrets and scandals of a group of teenagers in the 1980's will now come back to haunt some very respectable local people. But the truth must be uncovered in full if Hope and her mother are ever to re-build their shattered relationship.