When twelve-year old Joseph Coyne goes missing and is assumed to have been abducted, Detective Superintendent Parker makes a promise to the boys mother: Well get him back, alive. It proves to be a promise that Parker cannot keep, and when another lad goes missing in similar circumstances, Parker is led to an aviary in a derelict suburb of Manchester. The aviary seems like a magical place to the young and vulnerable, and Parker is troubled, not only by the birds, which he sees as macabre, but by the presence of a boy who is besotted with the prime suspect. With the help of a criminal psychologist who has problems of his own, Parker attempts to gather together the evidence he needs; but the killer is aware that time is running out and he plans to kill again before Parker makes his move…