Assistant district attorney Nina Frost has spent her career prosecuting crimes against children and has seen how legal procedure can fail vulnerable victims. Her professional knowledge becomes painfully personal when her five-year-old son, Nathaniel, is sexually assaulted and becomes unable to explain clearly what happened. Nina and her husband, Caleb, struggle to protect him while investigators attempt to identify the offender. Convinced that the justice system will not deliver the certainty she needs, Nina makes a devastating decision that places her on the other side of the law. The novel follows the consequences for her marriage, family and career while examining vengeance, guilt, parental love and the difficult boundary between justice and personal retribution.