A meeting at a skating party leads to a night of passion for Miranda and Brendan. Ten days later she returns home to find that he has let himself into her flat, where he has read her teenage diary. He proceeds to taunt her that she once slept with her sister's boyfriend, and she ends the relationship immediately. One month later, Miranda is invited by her sister Kerry to meet her new boyfriend - who just turns out to be Brendan.

Following Troy's suicide, the police refuse to believe that Brendan is to blame. He then abandons Kerry to marry Laura - who Miranda then finds dead in the bath, but the police can find no evidence linking Brendan to her death. Following Miranda's disappearance, forensic evidence supplied by his new girlfriend Naomi leads to his conviction and imprisonment for life. Then six months later in Australia a familiar-looking young woman turns up...