Family and kinship in London are in a bad way. What passes for a father figure these days is likely to be a child psychiatrist. Such as George Harper, liberal, humane and very radical, whose belief is: save the child and you save society. When Harper is found strangled and mutilated, hoist up the mast of his yacht, investigating officer Bob Clyne searches for suspects among Harper's client list of disturbed adolescents and among his friends. Then Clyne tracks down Harper's estranged daughter, the enigmatic and erotically charged Alice. And even though Alice is a suspect, Clyne cannot help himself being drawn into a dangerous intimacy with her.