Prominent national radio journalist Randall Morgan is being stalked and threatened by a hate-mailer whose letters are the more sinister for always being written in a gothic script. These letters offer no clue to the stalker’s gender, age, location or profession.
On police advice, Morgan outlines incidents in his life that, reasonably or not, may have left someone nursing a venomous grudge against him.
This triggers revelations that he has previously concealed even from his wife over their ten years or so together. The marriage, generally happy to this point, is challenged by these disclosures. Morgan’s wife, Louise, initially angered by having been locked out from past events in her husband’s life, is forced to acknowledge to herself that she, too, has concealed experiences that could reflect badly on her.
The unfolding plot with its surprising resolution reflects the theory that most people have three lives: the public, the private – and the secret.