Mike Sullivan is determined to raise his six-year old daughter Sarah to become a tough, independent woman. His own childhood was marred by constant doubt. His mother left when he was twelve, promising to return and rescue him from Lou Sullivan, an abusive and violently unpredictable thief who, Mike believes, is responsible for his mother's disappearance. A successful contractor living in the tough blue-collar town of Belham, Massachusetts, Mike is married to Jess, a woman with a frustrating, overprotective need to shelter Sarah from the harsh world. Battling against his wife's paranoia - her father was killed by a drunk driver in a snowstorm - Mike waits until Jess leaves the house and then, against her wishes, takes Sarah sledding.

Only Sarah doesn't want to go up the hill with her father. Sarah wants to go up with her best friend - and won't take no for an answer. In love with his daughter's stubbornness, and in conflict with his wife's overprotective nature, Mike allows his daughter to go up the hill with her friend. When Sarah doesn't come down, Mike finds himself stuck in the middle of a snowstorm, his daughter gone.

Five years pass and Sarah is still missing. The case has grown cold and the only suspect, Francis Jonah, the former priest believed to be responsible for the disappearance of two other girls, is dying of cancer. On a snowy night on Sarah's anniversary date, her jacket is discovered - by none other than Jonah himself.

Battling a drinking problem and a failed marriage, no wife, no daughter - no life to speak of other than his obsessive drive to uncover the truth about what happened to his daughter - Mike finds himself in a desperate race to unlock Jonah's secrets before he dies. What is the connection between the disappearance of Sarah and Mike's mother? And why has Mike's father suddenly appeared after hiding all these years, looking for forgiveness? In a novel of the nerve-wracking search for a missing child, and the raw human emotions of loss, compassion and forgiveness, Mike must open himself up to his father's attempts at reconciliation - and, in turn, confront a family history steeped in lies, deceit, cover-ups and clues that suggest Sarah might still be alive.