Policeman Hal Hawksley attends an bloody incident at a house and finds the mutilated remains of two women and their murderer and family member, Olive Martin. Olive confesses to the their murder and is sentenced to 25 years in prison. Fiver years on, a journalist named Rosalind meets Olive in prison to write a book about her life and the killings and she listens to the taped confession. Doubts soon creep into Rosalind's mind about writing the book and events take a surprising turn when she meets Hawksley.
Rosalind begins to think Olive is innocent of her crimes and visits Olive's solicitor who reveals Olive refused to see her father following her incarceration. Hawksley continues to believe that Olive is guilty and Rosalind realises he is still affected by the events from all those years before. Rosalind speaks to Olive's old work colleague Lily and discovers Olive had a boyfriend called Gary who may have a link to the murders. Gary's sister refuses to believe Gary had anything to do with them, but suggests a courier company was secretly delivering letters to Olive from a man matching the description of her father.
Rosalind continues to investigate the murders and uses crime scene photos in an attempt to extract the truth from Olive but without any results. Rosalind visits the hotel that Olive was rumored to be spending her time with her lover and a member of staff recognises a picture of Mr Clarke, leaving Rosalind to suspect he was her lover and the killer. Rosalind visits Hal who she is growing close to, and voices her suspicions but in the process Hal is attacked.
Hal discovers his restaurant is involved in a property scam after he breaks into Olive Martin's solicitor's office. Stuart Hayes admits to trying to set Hal up and burn down his restaurant. Olive reveals what she thinks happened all those years before and tells Rosalind she never said anything because she never thought anyone would believe her. Rosalind accuses Mrs Clarke of the murders based on the kind of overalls she was wearing leading to Olive's conviction being over turned. However, Olive refuses to reveal whether she actually committed the crimes or not.