After a nasty fight with her parents, 14-year-old Cynthia Bigge wakes up the next morning to find her house empty; her parents and brother gone. Thinking they are still angry with her from the night before, Cynthia gets ready and goes to school as usual. But when her brother never shows for class, she races home knowing something is terribly wrong. Cynthia's family doesn't return that day or the next...or ever. They have vanished without a trace.

Fast-forward 25 years. A married woman with a young daughter of her own, Cynthia still lives in the same town, in a house not far from the one she grew up in, afraid to leave. Afraid that if they come back, she should be close by so they can find her.

Cynthia agrees to take part in a reality crime show. One of those where the crime is re-enacted and the public is asked to come forward if they have any new information. Her husband, friends and family think she should have put the events of the past behind her by now. But she needs to know. How could they have just left her behind without a word, without a note, without any contact? She's been waiting for closure and now she feels like it's finally within her grasp; like the answers are coming. And they are. Someone who knows something has seen the program. Someone is planning on coming back to give some closure to Cynthia. The events of a quarter century ago are coming home with a vengeance. Answers are at hand. But after all this time, can Cynthia handle the truth, but more important, can she survive the truth?

This is a carefully plotted, tricky and sometimes downright scary thriller. Cynthia's fear rolls off the pages in waves. Her isolation and confusion are palpable. The lines between reality and paranoia become confused and realistically so. This is a young woman who's emotionally suffered a lot. Cynthia's truth comes at a high price and it's a roller coaster ride for her, and the reader, to get there.