When Susan Haynes goes to Happy Child Day Center to pick up her son Tommy, the manager Ms.Cortez tells her that she had already signed her son out at noon. Susan freaks because she knows that this is not true. She then calls her husband, Jeff at the bank, and he tells her to call the police. Susan is somewhat afraid to call the police because of her background. See, Susan does not remember 18 years of her life. All that she has been told is that the family chauffeur, Saul, dropped her off in Dallas at Bell View Mental Institute at the age of 8 years old completely catatonic.

As the investigation begins, everyone is willing to believe and assist Susan, but with each detail of her psychiatric care revealed in news reports, people begin to blame her. She is then left with only the support of her husband Jeff and Detective Harry Bronson, the detective assigned to investigate what happened to little Timmy. Jeff, feeling that he can no longer trust her, eventually deserts her too. Detective Bronson tells Susan that he needs her to take a polygraph test because the District Attorney's Office had doubts. He assures her that he does believe her, but that this will help prove she is innocent of kidnapping her son.

She begins to feel that her past is connected to her son’s disappearance so she decides to go back to Pine Basin, New Mexico without telling anyone. She sets out to answer the questions to her past and hopefully find Timmy. 

The book from the very first page mesmerized me. The author keeps you hanging on to her every word, and it stays that way through the entire book. There are so many ups and downs in the book that you feel like you are on a roller coaster ride. This book is filled with characters that are real to life. My two favorite characters are Susan, who was willing to risk life and limb to recover her son, and Detective Bronson, who is a Columbo-kind of cop that dresses and appears to be incompetent, but watch out for him. He is as sly as a fox and he sticks by Susan the entire time when even her husband abandons her. This was a well-written, high-pitched suspense story with an ending you would not believe.