When Ellie Wood is given a greyhound puppy at the start of the summer holidays, she thinks her life will be just perfect from that moment on. Sunny days in the park with her best friend Jan, bonfires and fish & chip suppers up on the allotment, and always with her beautiful dog, Princess, by her side. Ellie can forget her family's money troubles, arguments at home, and the big quarrel that has separated her from her much-loved granddad. But she has reckoned without the local bully, Frank Skally. He wants Princess too, and what Frank wants, he always gets. He is a bad enemy to have. In a desperate attempt to save her dog, Ellie finds herself caught up in a terrifying world of illegal hare coursers, danger and villainy. Not at all the way she expected her summer holidays to be.