People who don't know Joan Ferguson call her 'Dozey Joan'. Nicholas Parry calls her 'the Empress'. Joan Ferguson stacks shelves at Fletchers supermarket. Nicholas Parry's Empress rules an alternative universe, where the summers are filled with dark and cloudy skies. Joan Ferguson doesn't know who Nicholas Parry is, but Nicholas knows who Joan is. And Nicholas has a knife...Emotionally, psychologically and physically scarring, Joan's abduction is terrifying, but it is only afterwards that her ordeal really begins. Everyone knows what is best for Joan, but no one is prepared to listen to her. The police aren't interested in her version of events, and no one believes Joan when she says that even though Nicholas Parry has been put away, someone is still following her.It is up to Joan to prove people wrong, and to learn that even the darkest cloud has a silver lining.
