When schoolgirl Jodie Foot goes missing from a sleepy Dorset village, the shockwaves that reverberate through her community are as far-reaching as they are devastating. When Rachel Turner finds out her husband has lied about his whereabouts that evening, she is shattered. All she's ever wanted is a secure family life, and now it's about to be torn apart. Henry Streeter, Rachel's neighbour, is overwhelmed by old feelings of misery and loneliness as he struggles to stifle painful memories of his own childhood. And Juliet Fairweather, arriving in the village on the evening of the disappearance, is involved in an unexpected personal drama, while her mother, Bobbie, so often a bystander, is drawn inexorably into other people's lives. For everyone involved, one ordinary summer's day will bring extraordinary consequences and the need to examine their own sense of loss and longing.