The River Brede had burst its banks, and not a single house in the valley had escaped flooding. The teenagers are fifteen and thirteen, the sitter's in her thirties, they can all swim and the house is miles above the floods. There hadn't been anything like this kind of rain in living memory. The Subaqua Task Force could find no trace of Giles.

The nineteenth book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford.

'A woman phoned to say she and her husband went to Paris for the weekend, leaving their children with a - well, teen-sitter, I suppose, got back last night to find the lot gone and naturally she assumes they've all drowned.'

There hadn't been anything like this kind of rain in living memory. The River Brede had burst its banks, and not a single house in the valley had escaped flooding. Even where Wexford lives, higher up in Kingsmarkham, the waters had nearly reached the mulberry tree in his once immaculate garden. The Subaqua Task Force could find no trace of Giles and Sophie Dade, let alone the woman who was keeping them company, Joanna Troy. But Mrs Dade is convinced her children are dead.

As he embarks upon this mysterious investigation, Wexford is forced to question many of his core assumptions about society, even about his own family...