‘Don’t you know that when you save a man’s life he belongs to you?’ Mary Jago has donated her own bone marrow to save the life of someone she didn’t know. And this generous act led directly to the bitter break-up of her affair with Alistair. For him, it was as though her beauty had been plundered. But the man whose life she had saved would change Mary’s life in a way she could never have imagined. Mysterious, complex, dangerously inventive, Ruth Rendell’s new novel may well be her finest achievement.