"Martha Warden's son, Duncan, is the light of her life. After a child is killed at the boy's school, Martha is determined to protect him from the world and from the constant, unnamable dangers that plague parents and their children.".

"Late one night, she kidnaps Duncan and takes him to live, hidden and isolated, in a cave on the Rio Grande. When a strange man discovers her hideout, Martha is wary and suspicious. Yet slowly she begins to trust him with her son - never realizing that the man is a detective sent by her husband to bring her back home.

As the fiercely protective mother and the detective fall into a love affair, they move ever closer to a final confrontation, a terrible choice, and the revelation of a devastating secret."--BOOK JACKET.