It starts with the death of a teenage runaway, killed when she leaps from a motorway bridge into the speeding traffic below. The girl's identity remains a mystery - until the discovery of the dead girl's details along with profiles of three other girls, all recently reported missing. And a further shocking discovery causes the whole file to be handed over to Greater Manchester Police's Counter Terrorism Unit.

Detective Constable Iona Khan - still struggling for acceptance in the male-dominated CTU - little realises that, because of her close resemblance to the girl who leapt from the bridge, she is now in the sights of a sinister figure. Someone whose reputation for ruthlessness has attracted notoriety, even among those who trade in the most depraved of human markets .