Lucy Swann is trying on a new life. She leaves the UK without telling anyone that she is going away. Perhaps she'll only go for a week, or a month, she doesn't know yet. She's cut and dyed her hair, bought new clothes. She has only gone as far as a small town in Northern France when her journey is abruptly brought to an end by her violent death.

A skilled writer, Jo Mazelis traces the events of Lucy's last days to give her a decent 'life before death'. We see her brush past a number of other lives; a troubled Canadian man, his brain damaged brother and poet wife, an African medical student, young lovers and elderly lovers, who misremember a crucial conversation. When Inspector Vivier and his handsome assistant Sabine Pelat begin their investigation all these take on a new significance.

Lucy's death, like a stone thrown into a pool, sends out far reaching ripples - irredeemably altering the lives of all those who encountered her during her last hours, including those who never even knew her, as well as those of her loved ones back home.