When Freda is nine she unwittingly walks into the middle of a violent siege in a fast-food restaurant. Ten years later, Freda is haunted by the events that culminated in tragedy, and trapped by her portrayal in the eyes and ears of society as an innocent victim. But her image of innocence is now threatened - by someone who seems to know the truth.
Told from the point of view of a nineteen-year-old girl who, at the age of nine, had been a hostage during a siege, this is a powerful novel about a violent past that is still haunting the present. Can one remain an innocent bystander, or does even a nine-year-old girl become an active participant in terror? And how does she go on to build a life of meaning?