Bryony Wolfe is eleven years old when she and her sister, Daisy, are swept away by the river during a violent summer storm. On his way home from work, Detective Sergeant Fox is the man in the right place at the right time to rescue the girls.
Only it turns out that Fox himself needs rescuing, from the career defining failure to apprehend the Cruickshank Crew, a gang of bank robbers who, six years earlier, carried out a massive gold heist at the Cruickshank & Co bank. Even his rescue of the two sisters is overshadowed by the anniversary of this glittering golden apocalypse.
Bryony does not forget Fox and is inspired to follow in his footsteps and become a police officer. On the day that Fox retires to his bungalow in Little Midham, Bryony takes up her post with the local force.
Less than a year later and Bryony is recovering from a near fatal stabbing. She retreats to stay with her mum in the quiet backwater of Little Midham, throwing herself into community policing and safely out of harms way.
Except that harm is heading her way in the shape of Ivo Regan, former right hand man of the Cruickshank Crew. As the history of the Cruickshank & Co robbery begins to unravel before her investigative gaze and they move towards a final dastardly showdown, Bryony realises it might just be Fox's last chance to catch them.
And her chance to rescue him.
That's if she can convince him that it is never too late for the pursuit of justice.