Early one morning in the quiet English village of Larking, the body of a woman named Mrs Jenkins is found on the road. Miles away, her daughter, Henrietta, receives the bad news while working in the university library. Poor Mrs Jenkins appears to have been the victim of a horrible car accident.

When an autopsy proves not only that this was no accident but also that Mrs Jenkins had never had a child, young Henrietta’s life is thrown upside down. If she’s not Mrs Jenkins’s daughter, then who is she? It’s up to Detective Inspector C.D. Sloan of the Calleshire police force to bring the murderer to justice - and a sense of order back to Henrietta’s life.