In a new town Carla finds cool new friends, but do they know more than they’re telling about Gemma Merryweather’s recent and widely publicised disappearance?
London 1973. Carla Corti has had come to terms with her mother’s abandonment. Still it would have been nice to know her. On the eve of a breakthrough into why her mother left, Carla’s father moves the family North. A fifteen year old Londoner, Carla is distraught at the move. Her father asserts the benefits of country living, Carla only sees small town mentality.
And yet, Carla soon slips seamlessly into the shoes of another girl, a missing girl. She takes on her life, takes on her friends and slowly takes off her mask.
A salve on the raw memories left behind by the missing girl, Carla finds new confidence in the ready-made hole she fills. The people she vilified before knowing them become closer to her than her family. Yet the more she is accepted the less comfortable she feels. The more she learns the less she wants to know. The spectre of her mother raises its head. Carla’s conscience awakens; she can find no rest in this mystery girl’s shoes, she must find her.
Carla soon has to battle with a community’s greatest fears, remembrance of deeds done and acknowledgment of their part in them.