Rosemary Hirte, insurance broker known for her moderation, falls for a handsome professor and knows that at 52, it is her last chance. Afraid that the world will undermine the relationship, she weaves a deadly web into which she lures and destroys those coming too close to the object of her love.

A gripping psychological mystery from one of Europe's best-selling crime novelists. Would you confide your most intimate secrets to a stranger? Hella Moormann, a pharmacist, finds herself doing just this when she meets the unprepossessing Rosemarie Hirte in hospital. Hella has always suffered from a need to nurture lost souls, but she believes her latest lover will be different. Levin, a beautiful young dental student, is heir to his grandfather's fortune and looks like a good thing. All too soon, though, her faith is shaken: not only does he take an unhealthy interest in some antique poison bottles, but he also plans to misuse his dental skills in a macabre way. Hella's life takes an increasingly bizarre course, from involvement with drug runners to murder, via adultery and much else. But is she the helpless victim of fate or a cunning manipulator of events? Whatever the truth, in choosing to tell her story to the anonymous Rosemarie Hirte, she may have made a lethal mistake, for Hirte has a sinister secret of her own...