Galya Petrovna had thought that she was travelling to Dublin to live with a Russian family and look after their children. But instead she is here, in a Belfast bedroom, watching a man bleed to death, a man that she has just stabbed. The dead man's brother is a man to be feared and her minders need to get rid of her and the dead body, then they can pretend that they don't know what happened to either of them. But that night things go wrong down at the harbour-side and Galya escapes. She has to run and she is good at running. But above all, she needs to find the man who only wanted to talk; the one who gave her a silver cross and his phone number; the one who said that he had helped five other girls to get back home and that he could help her too.

And DI Jack Lennon? He is hoping for Christmas with his young daughter Ellen. But he keeps having to put in extra shifts at work. He is beginning to think that someone wants to make life difficult for him. And not just at work. Ellen's aunt would like nothing better than to have Ellen go and live with her mother's family. So - a nagging call from Ellen's aunt and a call from his chief telling him to come back into work. It may be Christmas but there is a dead body down at the harbour and an injured harbour policeman.