Content Warning: This novel includes domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, the sexual abuse of minors, bullying, and death by suicide.

The novel starts immediately after the murder of Nicola Fitzwilliam on March 24. In the present, Detective Rose Pelham investigates the crime scene at the yellow Melville Heights house where the Fitzwilliams live. She carefully places a red tassel into an evidence bag, wondering if it could hold the key to the case.

The murder victim is not identified until the final part of the book. The novel’s mystery surrounds the identity of the victim, one of the three Fitzwilliam residents, as well as the identity of the murderer.

In the January before the murder, Joey Mullen visits her mother’s grave and shares updates on her life. Recently, she met and married Alfie Butters while working at a resort in Ibiza, and they moved back to Bristol. The young couple are staying with her brother Jack and his wife Rebecca in Melville Heights, an affluent neighborhood in Bristol that Joey has always liked, until she and Alfie can establish themselves.

After returning from the cemetery, Joey briefly interacts with Rebecca, who is pregnant.