More than a year ago, Natalie Gordon went to buy a balloon at the Thanksgiving Day parade and dissolved into thin air. The police and a private investigator still have no leads. So when Natalie’s despairing husband pleads with ex-nun Christine Bennett to help, she can’t say no.

Not only are Natalie’s present whereabouts a mystery, but so is her past. Someone has stripped her personnel file in her old office, and even her husband knows little about her. Starting with a cardboard box of Natalie’s belongings—a few books, keys, some cosmetics—Christy searches for a life someone has tried very hard to erase and finds a cast of characters so chilling that murder seems not only inevitable, but likely to happen again.