David Cunane is Manchester’s most off-beat private eye. Fond of drink, fatally attracted to the wrong women and champion of the lost cause, he walks a thin line.

Rachel Elsworth is missing. Nineteen years old, she has mysteriously vanished into the city’s seamy underworld. Her father employs Cunane to find her.

Rachel’s trail leads Dave into the maze of Manchester’s criminal fraternity; and gradually turns into a twisted path right to the heart of police corruption.

As Dave find himself drawn further and further into a web of deceit and danger, he realizes that someone will stop at nothing to find Rachel before he does. The race is on, but Dave still doesn’t know quite how high the stakes are.