"A child has been kidnapped. His father, Evan Kiley, a reporter on the local newspaper in this small Australian city, telephones the home of the Wintons. They are a well-to-do family whose small daughter had been abducted - and returned - a year or so earlier. The Wintons had paid the ransom demanded without calling in the police.".

"Because he cooperated with the criminals, Kiley accuses Winton of complicity in their crime. The men who took Robin Kiley, just a toddler, followed the same pattern as that of the earlier kidnapping of Winton's little girl. Had Winton notified the authorities, the criminals would have been caught and Robin would have been spared, Kiley says.".

"Winton feels guilty and sorry for Kiley so he agrees to help him in his time of need. Gradually, the two men are drawn together in a plot to thwart the kidnappers and to get Robin Kiley back. But something goes wrong and a murder is committed."--BOOK JACKET.