A paranoid mother and her daughter hiding in an abandoned caravan are followed by a strange, ten year old girl who knows too much.
Since Robin turned thirteen, a strange atmosphere has been seeping over London. Pam has left Mum and disappeared back to Greenham Common, and now school has closed for a week. When Robin suggests a holiday, she thinks of somewhere warm where Mum can relax and recover from her heartbreak and perhaps make some new friends.
She has no idea that they’ll end up hiding in a dilapidated caravan by the sea, only able to explore during the cold November nights. Then she meets Maggie, a young girl who almost leads her to her death playing on the rocks by the sea. Why does Maggie keep following Robin? And why is she so obsessed with that recent suicide out on the cliffs?
As Mum’s condition deteriorates, Robin and Maggie are thrown together on a wave of discovery, involving a chicken shed, a pile of newspapers and a man who paints pebbles on the seafront. Robin is swept out of her depth, as she learns about the brooding landscape; the dark secret of Maggie’s past and the true threat of her own mother’s illness. Her discovery will change the way she sees the world around her forever.