On a winter's evening in Notting Hill, Dawn Arrowood drives home after a doctor's appointment confirming her pregnancy. She is terrified. Her older husband has made it clear that he wants no children, and Dawn is not even sure that the child is his. But as Dawn arrives home, she is attacked as she gets out of her car. In the ensuing struggle, her assailant whispers in her ear 'I'm sorry'. And he cuts her throat.

Gemma Jones and Duncan Kincaid are called to the crime scene. The gripping case that develops forces them to investigate 1960s Notting Hill and its racial tensions, the Russian mafia and a possible serial killer. . .

And at the same time, Gemma, pregnant herself with Kincaid's child, has to cope with her own rollercoaster of emotions in a case that is rather too close to home for comfort.