It is 2001 and schoolgirl Janice Watson is brutally raped at a party while under the influence of the drug Rohypnol. Twenty five years later, her daughter Rose, now working as a high-class courtesan, is found murdered at her home in Chelsea. During Detective Inspector Parish's investigation into her death, he discovers that Rose's mother Janice, was also murdered two years previously at around the same time as Parish's wife and daughter were killed in a bizarre motoring accident. Parish begins to piece together a puzzle that appears to link all the deaths to one person. But, that person is Lord Protector Aiden Hawsley, the leader of the Christian Socialist Party, the political organisation that has been running the United Kingdom for the last ten years and the man who is directly responsible for changing the country beyond all recognition having addressed all the major social problems that beset previous governments. Can Lord Protector Hawsley really be connected to the murders? And what would be the outcome for the country if he were. These are the questions Parish must answer. D. I. Parish and his assistant Sergeant Heart must tread very carefully in this investigation. The true story of how the rape of one woman could change the world.