A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a shocking impulse purchase. That one moment of madness is enough to turn Tracy's monotonous world upside down. The boredom of everyday life is replaced by fear and danger at every corner. Witnesses to Tracy's outrageous exchange at the Merrion Centre in Leeds are Tilly, an aging actress teetering on the brink of her own disaster, and Jackson Brodie, who has returned to his hometown to search for the roots of another. All three characters learn that the past is never just history and that no good deed goes unpunished.