As a little girl in 1979, Rosie has a family that seems perfect-from the outside. When Wendy, her mother's best friend, flees her own troubled marriage and comes to stay, she sees the truth behind the façade. And she witnesses firsthand the beginnings of a black-hearted killer.

Angel/Rosie is a beautiful but neglected teenager in 1991-anxious to get into Oxford and nursing a dangerous crush on a neighbor. When she learns that her adored father has decided to remarry, she is resistant at first but later seems to accept it. However, a summer of love becomes a nightmare of obsession that ends in a bloody church fête and a vow of revenge.

In the present day, 5-year-old Lucy is kidnapped, and a child's severed hand is found in a graveyard. Soon, more body parts are discovered. All that stands between Lucy and a grisly end is a slow-witted pedophile, but can he save her from the angel of death? Lucy's grandmother, Wendy, begins piecing together ominous signs from the past.