The marriage of Virginia, reserved wife of politician Frederick Quentin, is in crisis. While on holiday with her husband and daughter Kim on the wild, romantic English coast, Virginia meets German Nathan Moor. From the first moment she is attracted to this intellectual adventurer who is sailing around the world single-handed in his little boat. But as they are driving back to Bristol the Quentins hear on a news bulletin that the German sailor has been shipwrecked and is missing. Back home the family discovers that a child murderer is in their neighbourhood. Like everyone else around, the Quentins are desperately worried about their seven-year-old daughter Kim. When Frederik has to go to London on business for a week, the missing Nathan suddenly turns up on Virginia’s doorstep. She offers to help him, and before long plunges into an affair with him. Then Kim vanishes without a trace on her way back from school, andVirginia begins to suspect the unthinkable.