 Ann Devenish, a teenage, mischievous schoolgirl, at a country public school one day lets her curiosity go too far and accidentally stumbles into the aftermath of a horrible, brutal murder. The sight of the mutilated corpse terrorises her and she flees from the scene screaming. Following this incident Ann s behaviour becomes even more bizarre and erratic much to the exasperation of her father, the local building society branch manager, and she seemingly starts to suffer from mysterious blackouts sometimes for days at a time. This behaviour continues until she falls under the spell of a new teacher at her school, a writer, David Miles. The murderer is never caught and life in the devastated, close knit community apparently returns to normal. Years later another brutal murder, that of David Miles  wife, is committed in identical fashion to those committed previously. This time the murderer is caught but refuses to confess to the latest brutal murder. Why? Is there a copycat killer about? The finger of suspicion starts to point at Ann but is she really the killer?