Jane Ferguson suffers from horrific nightmares which she claims not to be able to explain. And when her traumatised 6-year-old daughter finds Jane dead, hanging by the neck in the hallway of the family's seaside home, it is assumed she took her own life.

But routine police enquiries reveal evidence indicating that Jane has been murdered, and her businessman husband Felix, commodore of the local yacht club, becomes the chief suspect.

Called in to launch a major inquiry, Detective Inspector David Vogel discovers that nothing connected with Jane Ferguson's death is as it seems. Gradually, he uncovers a deeply disturbing story involving a succession of shocking family secrets stretching back over three decades.