Jodie Barker is six years old. Her father is slipping into heroin addiction, her mother estranged in a love affair and her dynamic career as an investigative reporter. When fuel supplies run dry and the Western World grinds to a halt, riots break out across the civilised world plunging the inner cities into lawlessness. As a fragile peace is restored, Jodie Barker disappears from home. Her father is critically injured at the scene along with three members of a drug gang. Detective Superintendent Alec Ramsay leads the Major Investigation Team in the search for the missing girl. The investigation is marred by the death of two undercover Drug Squad officers in the neighbouring county. Internal politics and misinformation send their search into chaos. The evidence indicates that the cases are linked and when Jodie's mother Carol goes missing, a spider's web of corruption, murder and organised crime shrouds her disappearance.