Liza and her mother have led a strange, enclosed life together in their remote home, the gatehouse of a country mansion. But now all this must end. Eve has told Liza she must leave. Because Eve has killed a man. And he is not the first. At seventeen years of age, with œ100 in cash, Liza is cast adrift into a terrifying world she has never known. But she is not alone. For there is one secret that she has kept from her mother - her love affair with Sean, the young man from the big house. With him, Liza gradually learns about the world, about herself, and must come to terms with the possibility that the murderous violence of her mother may also be present in her.