A studious Asian schoolgirl has gone missing and while her family are adamant that she is with relatives in Leicester, police in the Yorkshire town of Cloughton fail to find any trace of her. Her teachers are worried and there is a feeling amongst the officers that the girl has been murdered. The case, however, is not the only thing worrying DI Mitchell and his superior Chief Inspector Browne. Hannah, Browne's wife and Mitchell's mother-in-law is seriously ill and with Browne on leave, Mitchell finds himself torn between sorrow and the addictive challenge of being in charge. Meanwhile DCS Clement is trying to catch a teenager suspected of breaking into doctors' cars and stealing their medical bags for drugs. A thankless task until the young thug's girlfriend is found dead and Clement ends up in the thick of a murder investigation. When another girl dies in an identical drug related murder, it looks as if the pieces are beginning to fit together. But murder is never straightforward and while the search goes on for the missing Asian student, Mitchell's team uncover an obsession that goes deeper than anyone could ever have imagined.