When Sean, a twelve-year-old boy from a Catholic orphanage, dies mysteriously, his art teacher, Caitlin Cheney, confronts a web of secrecy about his death.

Set in 1973, when most people refused to acknowledge the abuse of children, Caitlin's husband, a successful corporate lawyer seeking election to the New South Wales Parliament, does all he can to block her efforts to seek the truth.

But she has allies in Richard Brinsmead, the charismatic Opposition Leader, Quinn, an eccentric private investigator, and Lexy, her closest friend. Caitlin's crusade probes the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, the police, politics, big business and the law, as she attempts to shine a light on the plight of helpless children. In the process, she puts her own life on the line.

To unravel the mystery, Caitlin creates a series of paintings based on Sean's drawings. Through this, she realises that behind those she exposes as paedophiles, there is a malevolent mastermind who is prepared to kill.