A moment of shared passion two years ago. A secret that must not get out. A secret that it is worth dying for?
A shared moment from two years previous comes back to haunt teenager, George Garson. He knows above anything he cannot let this secret get out. His reputation would quickly be ruined. The lengths he will go to keep it quiet are beyond imagining. Jamie Hartnell feels that the world is against him as neither his classmates nor his mother can come to terms with his homosexuality. Alison Lodge, teacher at both boys’ school, becomes far too involved with their story.
The story starts in a hospital room, a boy in a coma, the result of brutal violence. But who is injured and who has put him there is not revealed immediately. The story slowly reveals the events leading up to the attack; the bullying of Jamie by Steve Pearson, George's slow unravelling as he realises exactly how he feels, Alison's brother Nick who copes with his dead marriage by self harming, Ben, who deals with his loneliness by locking away his emotions, all will have an influence on events.
The structure of the novel is non-chronological and written in thrid person although each chapter is from the point of view of a different character.