A family is holding a party to mark Alec's 50th birthday, but his wife is nowhere to be found. He doesn't seem worried but his teenage children are getting increasingly concerned. After their own fruitless search, they call the police, but nobody can find Charlotte (Charlie) Salter.

Lives move on. They all cope as well as they can.

Now it's present day, 30 years later. Alec is in his eighties and has dementia. He occasionally says things which imply he knows more about his wife's disappearance than he had previously shared. His daughter Etty returns to the East Anglian village to help with his care. It's a place she's spent her adult life avoiding.

Other people who were affected by Charlie's disappearance are also drawn back and Etty's childhood friends, Greg and Morgan, decide to do a podcast to see if they can solve the mystery. Their sleuthing uncovers more than they bargained for. 

This is a novel that gains momentum with each turn of the page. We experience the worry of Charlie's original disappearance, the trauma of dealing with the fact that she is assumed dead, and how her friends and family try to move on without her. Then we have a gripping murder mystery with plenty to keep us guessing before the final reveal.