As Tom Seymour walks with his wife along the river Tyne, they see a young man jump from the jetty into the freezing water. Instinctively, Tom rescues him. But his act saves the life of Danny Miller, whose past, as well as whose future, will come to haunt Tom. Recently released from prison, and living under an assumed name, Danny was tried for murder as a 10-year-old on the basis of Tom's assessment of him as a psychologist. When Danny asks Tom to help him sort out his life, Tom is drawn into a lonely, soul-searching reinvestigation of the case.