Johnny Maxon returns to Glasgow for the first time after they separated and the death his daughter. Julia Maxon has now been missing for 5 months and her mother wants his help. On visiting her old flat he finds a dead woman.
Maxen discovers the girl who was died in his wife's flat was called Sandra Bailey. The police believe it was suicide but Maxen learns she was in the boat the night his daughter drowned, along with Tom Armstrong and Louise Blake.
Dorothy Havergal tells Maxen about his wife deteriorating mental health. Martina Stevens was commissioned, by a man named Maxen, to paint a picture of his daughter Sarah. Insp. Wardlaw contacts him about his wife's death.
Maxon is shown the body of Julia to recognise but it has been in the water for quite some time but she was strangled not drowned. Poacher Bunty Nichol claims he heard Julie shout "Johnny" on the night of her death and he killed her.
Maxen discovers that Armstrong killed Julia when he thought she was going to marry to someone else. To make everyone think she was alive he used a young woman with severe mental health issues to play the part of Julia when needed.