Jessie Flynn is a psychologist working with the Defence Psychology Service of the British Army. She becomes involved in the case of four-year-old Sami Scott, who seems deeply traumatised since the return of his father, a major with the Intelligence Corps, from Afghanistan. Is this simply because his father suffered serious burns and is almost unrecognisable physically? Jessie suspects there is something not quite right about the family, but they prove very reluctant to allow themselves to be ‘treated’ as a unit.