Emilia Ward is just an ordinary mum living happily in suburban London with her husband and two children. She's also a bestselling crime author.
But when Emilia starts her tenth novel, life takes a disturbing turn: an incident straight out of one of her novels occurs in real life. Just a coincidence, she thinks.
Until it happens again.
Then someone she knows dies in the same way as a victim in the book she's currently writing . . .
Who is doing this? How do they know what she is writing? And what if Emilia and her family are next?

On a perfect August morning, Elle Bishop heads out for a swim in the pond below 'The Paper Palace' - her family's holiday home in Cape Cod. As she dives beneath the water she relives the passionate encounter she had the night before, against the side of the house that knows all her darkest secrets, while her husband and mother chatted to their guests inside...

So begins a story that unfolds over twenty-four hours and fifty years, as Elle's shocking betrayal leads her to a life-changing decision.