Shock slammed into her as she spotted the two little girls lying on the cold hard ground, snow swirling round their fragile bodies. Twins with button noses and heart-shaped faces, their pretty green eyes closed forever… As the snow falls and a bitter wind blows, Detective Ellie Reeves is devastated to discover the bodies of two little girls, alone and frozen on an icy lake, in the isolated town of Cold Mountain. The girls are holding hands, with matching bows in their blond curls, and when Ellie realizes they are twin sisters, her heart breaks for their mother, who must be desperately wondering where her little darlings are. But, back at the police station, she is horrified to discover that nobody has reported the sisters missing. Are their parents in danger too? When an abandoned car is found near the girls’ bodies, and Ellie learns that the female driver is in hospital, she prays that the injured woman will know something about the twins. A DNA test shows that the woman in hospital is the twins’ mother Barbara, and Ellie rushes to interview her. But when Ellie arrives at the hospital she is faced with an empty bed. Barbara has fled and her house is abandoned too. As Ellie searches the family home, she is chilled to see there is no sign of any children. If Barbara is the twins’ mother, where are the toys and photos of her precious girls? When another little girl disappears, Ellie knows that finding Barbara might well be the key to saving an innocent child. But who is Barbara running from? Or does she have something to hide? And with the clock ticking and a fearsome winter storm brewing, can Ellie find the truth before another innocent life is lost?