Janet Florin has been gone for almost a week. Husband Mark reported her missing when she failed to collect their two young children from school. Family friend, Trisha Marlowe, desperate for news of Janet, hires Sal Kilkenny to track her down. What led Janet to abandon everything she holds dear? Ramin's brother, Berfan, is missing, too. A failed asylum seeker, likely to be returned to Iran, has he disappeared to escape deportation? His brother says not. And when Sal hears that Berfan has been seen in Manchester, the chances of finding him look good. Sal has already traced Bob Swithinbank's birth mother, though whether Sandra Patefield will ever agree to meet Bob is another matter.

Meanwhile as the summer kicks into gear, the temperature is notched up on the domestic front, when Sal's housemate, Ray, wants to share much more than the chores…