Penny is eight months pregnant and barely able to get around, but she can't shake the feeling that she must get away before it's too late. Her husband thinks she's crazy until their next door neighbor pulls into the driveway and takes out his rifle.

April has a major-league crush on Gavin; unfortunately, he likes her cousin Bethany. But April becomes his only hope for escape from the policeman who frames him for Bethany's murder.

Peter may only be twelve, but he's got a dangerous temper, the kind that seethes and burns beneath an icy exterior, waiting to be unleashed. When someone kills his best friend, he plots a vicious revenge.

Four seemingly separate lives, each torn apart by violence and danger, inexorably drawn together by fate and circumstance. Unless they can unravel the mystery of a barely remembered nursery rhyme, they'll have little chance to survive.