Elsie’s childhood in Australia is riddled with jeering and bullying at school. At home, she keeps her nose in a book but she can’t always avoid her father’s hateful gaze and her mother’s often indifference. At eighty-one, she hides her earlier life by living quietly and unnoticed, but her notorious past has a way of creeping up on her. When her neighbour with an annoying dog dies and she discovers his corpse on the floor of his house, eyes of suspicion turn on her and Elsie suspects it’s her neighbour Joan, who has informed the police who she is.

Will she be able to escape the murderous image painted about her in the past or will the taunts return to haunt her remaining years?