Amelia wakes in the yard tent to find Olivia and Blue Mouse both gone without a trace.

An unknown man in a yellow golf sweater enters Theo Wyre's law office and stabs Laura to death.

Michelle sits alone in a cold room with Keith dead from an axe blow, apparently having killed him.

The Land sisters hire Jackson after discovering their missing sister Olivia's beloved toy locked in their dead father's desk.

Theo hires Jackson to find Laura's killer, determined to seek closure on the anniversary of her death.

Jackson visits Sylvia at the convent, where she claims to know nothing about Olivia's disappearance.

Josie furiously tells Jackson she is taking Marlee to New Zealand, threatening his access to his daughter.

Jackson is attacked from behind in a dark parking lot and wakes up in the hospital with a concussion.

Jackson's car brakes fail after being tampered with, causing him to crash into another vehicle.

Jackson goes outside to rescue a stray black cat and narrowly escapes as his house explodes behind him.

Amelia discovers Binky Rain's body lying in the overgrown orchard after being drawn through a hidden garden gate.

Stan Jessop's ex-wife Kim identifies the yellow golf sweater as belonging to her former creepy neighbor Stuart Lappin.

Jackson passes out while driving and is hospitalized, discovering his neglected tooth has caused a dangerous blood infection.

Jackson confronts Sylvia at the convent with Blue Mouse, and she confesses to accidentally killing Olivia as a child.

Jackson sells his detective business, moves to France, and is visited there by Julia and Amelia.

Private investigator Jackson Brodie is simultaneously hired to solve the cold-case disappearance of Olivia Land, the unsolved murder of Laura Wyre, and the search for a missing young woman named Tanya Fletcher. As Jackson pursues each case, someone escalates their efforts to stop him, attacking him in a parking lot, tampering with his brakes, and ultimately blowing up his house. A crucial interview with Stan Jessop's ex-wife Kim unlocks the Wyre case by identifying Laura's killer, while Jackson is briefly derailed by a dangerous blood infection from a neglected tooth. He then confronts Sylvia Land at the convent with Olivia's toy and extracts the confession that solves the oldest and most painful mystery. After exposing his attacker as Binky Rain's greedy nephew Quintus, mailing Laura's killer's name to Theo, and inheriting Binky's fortune, Jackson finally retires to France.

The core investigation: three cold cases, deadly threats, and Jackson's final solutions.

Victor Land neglects his wife and daughters during a Cambridge summer, creating a household full of chaos and unhappiness.

Theo walks his daughter Laura to his law office, constantly fretting over her safety as she cheerfully brushes him off.

Michelle rises each morning in a remote cottage to cook, clean, and study while feeling overwhelmed by isolated motherhood.

Jackson conducts tedious surveillance on a woman named Nicola Spencer while daydreaming about Marlee and a house in France.

Amelia and Julia feel overwhelming giddy relief when their abusive and neglectful father Victor finally dies after his stroke.

Theo visits the day spa built inside Laura's former office building to stand in the room where she died.

Caroline takes shelter from rain in a village church, meets the new vicar, and immediately falls in love with him.

Binky Rain tells Jackson the Land girls were wild and that she did not let police search her garden.

Amelia and Julia spot a young unhoused woman with brightly colored hair begging on a Cambridge street with her dog.

Theo awkwardly babysits Marlee in Jackson's office and takes her across the street for food while waiting for Jackson.

Jackson interviews Laura's friend Emma Drake, who reveals that teacher Stan Jessop had an inappropriate crush on his student.

At Binky's tea, Jackson meets her only living relative Quintus Rain and notices Quintus has a suspicious facial injury.

Theo suffers a severe asthma attack near Laura's memorial bench and is saved from death by Lily-Rose's intervention.

Lily-Rose moves in with Theo and reveals her real name is Tanya, making her Michelle's long-lost daughter.

In a late flashback, Laura's own perspective reveals that neighbor Stuart Lappin had been following and sending her unwanted gifts.

The secondary storylines follow the lives of the characters surrounding Jackson's three cold cases as their worlds slowly intersect. Theo Wyre spends years in grief-stricken stasis, obsessively memorializing Laura, while the Land sisters endure their father's deathbed and feel barely concealed relief when he finally dies. Caroline lives out a quiet, unhappy second life in the English countryside, having secretly reinvented herself after prison, and finds unexpected feeling when she meets a village vicar. Several characters repeatedly pass a young unhoused woman with brightly colored hair on Cambridge streets without realizing she is the answer to one of Jackson's cases. Theo's near-fatal asthma attack and Lily-Rose's intervention bring them together, and when Lily-Rose eventually moves in and reveals her true identity, the threads of all three cases draw tighter toward resolution.

The supporting cast: daily lives, chance encounters, and the discoveries that connect the cases.

Rosemary allows Amelia to sleep in the yard tent with Olivia, a seemingly harmless decision that enables tragedy.

After her father's death, Amelia has a sudden epiphany that Olivia is somehow coming back to them.

Caroline discovers she is pregnant by Jonathan and begins to seriously contemplate leaving her unhappy rural marriage.

Julia discovers the family dog Sammy is dying and Amelia calls Jackson in a panic, desperately begging him to come.

Shirley Morrison hires Jackson to find her missing niece Tanya, and the two of them sleep together that night.

Jackson discovers that Shirley is married to a doctor and sends her a formal letter dropping her as a client.

Jackson interviews Stan Jessop, who makes crude comments about Laura, while Stan's current wife does not recognize Laura's name.

Despairing over her empty life, Amelia swallows a handful of prescription pills she finds in her father's house.

Julia hears Amelia in the house and rushes in to find her in time, saving her from the overdose.

A full chapter reveals Jackson's tragic past: his sister Niamh was murdered and his older brother Francis died by suicide.

Jackson digs through Binky's overgrown garden with his bare hands until he uncovers Olivia's buried remains.

Caroline drives away in the Mercedes Jonathan bought her, picks up the vicar, and leaves her old life behind.

The true events of the night Keith died are revealed: Shirley swung the axe while Michelle took the blame.

Amelia decides not to tell the police about Olivia and instead plans a rose garden memorial in Binky's yard.

The true story of Olivia's death is revealed: Sylvia accidentally suffocated her sister and asked Victor to hide the body.

This pool traces the pivotal choices and shattering revelations that drive the novel toward its resolution. Early seemingly harmless decisions, like allowing a child to sleep in a yard tent, carry devastating consequences that haunt the characters for decades. As Jackson's investigation deepens, his personal world fractures: a suspect lies to him, Amelia reaches a breaking point and attempts suicide, and the violence targeting Jackson intensifies. The truth about each cold case is finally unmasked in a cascade of late revelations: Shirley's guilt in Keith's death exposes Michelle's long sacrifice, Sylvia's confession uncovers what really happened to Olivia, and Amelia chooses mourning over justice. The pool ends not in a courtroom but in a garden, with Amelia planting roses over her sister's remains as the novel's most enduring act of love.

Hidden truths: key decisions, emotional crises, and the secrets finally brought to light.