"Joel Campbell, eleven years old at the time, began his descent towards murder with a bus ride."

The wife of a prominent Scotland Yard detective is gunned down on her own doorstep. A seemingly meaningless murder. But it didn't spring from nowhere.

It starts with three orphaned children, deposited at the North Kensington house of their aunt, who's willing but has lit¬tle time in her busy life for them. Teenaged Ness is seeking to forget the past through drugs, alcohol and bad boys. Her brother Joel is the responsible one, carrying a load too heavy for his slender shoulders. And the youngest is Toby. Something isn't quite right about Toby but no one in the family can admit it.

These children are dropped almost on their own into a dangerous neighborhood, and in his efforts to look after Ness, protect Toby, and find his own place, Joel forges a pact that sets into motion a devastating crime.