The Metropole Hotel, Brighton: after a heady New Year's Eve ball, a woman is brutally raped as she returns to her room. A week later, another woman is attacked. Both victims' shoes are taken by the offender. DS Roy Grace soon realizes that these new cases bear remarkable similarities to an unsolved series of crimes back in 1997. The perpetrator was dubbed "Shoe Man" and was believed to have raped five women before murdering his sixth victim and vanishing. Could this be a copycat, or has Shoe Man resurfaced? Soon Grace and his team will find themselves in a desperate race against the clock to identify and save the life of the new sixth victim.