Mak Vanderwall -- beautiful, street-wise daughter of a cop, graduate in forensic psychology, and now PI -- is hired by a widowed mother to track down her missing nineteen-year-old son. Has he come to harm? Or has he run off with a bizarre troupe of shady French cabaret artists sweeping through Australia? And what of the rumours of violence and tragedy that have plagued the troupe for the past decade? Is their horrifying past fact or fiction? Meanwhile, Mak is increasingly obsessed with the powerful Cavanagh family, one of Australia?s richest and most ruthless families, whom she believes has got away with murder. And it seems their security advisor Mr White, and his hit man, Luther Hand, may not have forgotten about Mak either ...