Amid the tragic unfolding mayhem of the morning of 9/11, failed Brighton businessman and never-do-well Ronnie Wilson sees the chance of a lifetime - to disappear and reinvent himself in another country. Six years later the discovery of the skeletal remains of a woman's body in a storm drain in Brighton leads Detective Superintendent Roy Grace on an enquiry spanning the globe, and into a desperate race against time to save the life of a woman being hunted down like an animal in the streets and alleys of Brighton.