After suffering a miscarriage brought on by a beating, an abused wife leaves her husband, using his ATM card to buy a bus ticket out of town. The novel describes her struggle to begin a new life, then her husband, a sadistic police officer, comes looking for her. After fourteen years of beatings and abuse, Rose runs away from her husband. Unfortunately, he is a detective, and he has ways of finding her.

Early in her marriage, Grace Loring became the victim of her husband's unpredictable rages. Taking her infant daughter, Grace fled to the safety of her brother Gus's home in Vermont. Now, Grace is a successful author with her own web site. Accustomed to abused women writing to ask for advice, Grace is contacted by a troubled young woman named Stephanie Baine. When Stephanie's e-mails abruptly stop, Grace fears the worst. Then the e-mails resume, and...