Bullying and persecution among a group of schoolgirls leads to violent retribution and a race against time for Wycliffe. Two very different young women have been murdered within the same week. One was a singer in a nightclub, the other a nurse - but both were strangled in their own homes in very similar attacks. The press are quick to assume there is a psychopath on the loose, but Wycliffe suspects the truth may be somewhat more complex than that . . . As Wycliffe searches for a link between the victims his investigations take him back in time; to a school trip, an isolated hostel and a cruel joke on a lonely student. Wycliffe is forced into a race against time to track down the murderer before they strike again.