When East sees the twisted body of Girl Garner at the bottom of the stairs, he knows that the Garner boys will blame him for the death of their sister. The Garners were his closest mates - now they are his enemies, and he knows he has to run. But East can't leave West, his younger brother, whom he has always protected and whose face is distorted by a cruel - and unmissable - disease. With West in tow, East flees into the wilds of Essex, not knowing if they will ever be able to return home, and not suspecting that West might have his own reasons for wanting to get away. Stranded in unknown territory, the brothers are vulnerable to new fears and new desires. And the past is pursuing them in the form of a hitman ...