On a stifling summer's day eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. Jack's in charge she said. I won't be long. But she never comes back. Three years later mum-to-be Catherine wakes to find a knife beside her bed and a note that says: I could have killed you. Meanwhile Jack is still in charge - of his sisters of supporting them all of making sure nobody knows they're alone in the house and - quite suddenly - of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother. But the truth can be a dangerous thing…