With London in the grip of a heat-wave, a man takes refuge from the scorching sun in a nearby tea-shop, only to share his table with a stranger who seems determined to make conversation. Too polite to ignore him, he becomes his reluctant confidant as harmless small talk gives way to dark memories. Missing is the first of three unsettling stories of guilty secrets, past hurts, and haunted lives from one of England’s foremost writers of the twentieth century.