Laura Simon is saying goodbye to her husband, Peter. He is setting off to the south of France for a week with his friend Christoph, as he does every year, for a short holiday. Laura is touched to see how tenderly Peter says goodbye to their daughter, Sophie. The little girl presents her father with a tiny statuette of Peter Pan - to protect him. Laura comforts Sophie by reminding her that a week is not an eternity, after all.
While she is out shopping Laura discovers that her credit card has been blocked. When she makes enquiries she discovers from her husband's secretary that the small PR agency he runs went bankrupt long ago, and their house is also mortgaged to the hilt. There seems to be no way of contacting Peter himself - he isn't answering his mobile phone. But Laura still isn't really worried yet; she is sure that the whole thing is a misunderstanding which will soon be cleared up. However, the following day the police turn up on her doorstep. Her husband is being charged with fraud: during the bankruptcy proceedings he apparently made off with €200,000. And there is no trace of Peter himself. Now seriously worried, Laura begins to phone everybody who might know something about her husband. But even their friends Nadine and Henri, who run a small, classy restaurant in southern France, have no idea where he is. Henri does tell her that Peter was in the restaurant briefly the previous evening, but that's all he knows. Finally Laura manages to contact Peter's friend Christoph, but after some hesitation he tells her that he and Peter haven’t been sailing together for years now.
Confused and very worried, Laura travels to the south of France herself. Peter apparently never arrived in the small holiday cottage situated on remote hill overlooking the sea. And the French police are also looking for him. His car has been found, abandoned, with Peter's luggage in the boot... along with a large sum of money in hard cash and two air tickets to South America. Did Peter have a mistress? Was he planning to run away with her? Laura feels as though she is in a nightmare from which it is impossible to awaken. Where is her husband - and what happened to him?