妮娜•兰德里的生日意外迭出，等待她的并不全是惊喜……她本想今天和新男友一起，带着她的两个孩子去度假，逃离桑德陵岛冬日里的萧条。无奈一路上意外层出不穷，计划一再被打乱。最要命的是，十五岁的女儿查莉夜出未归……时间一分一秒地流逝，妮娜的不安由担忧升级为恐慌，最可怕的噩梦降临到了一位母亲的头上。查莉离家出走了吗？还是发生了可怕的意外？为什么大家对她的失踪都如此漠不关心？小岛黑夜降临，一连串若隐若现的谜团让妮娜的疑虑变成深信：现在的问题已不仅仅是能否和女儿离开桑德陵岛去过圣诞节，而是她们究竟能不能活着离开这里。

Nina Landry has given up city life for the isolated community of Sandling Island, lying off the bleak east coast of England. At night the wind howls. Sometimes they are cut off by the incoming tide. For Nina though it is home. It is safe. But when Nina's teenage daughter Charlie fails to return from a sleepover on the day they're due to go on holiday, the island becomes a different place altogether. A place of secrets and suspicions. Where no one ndash; friends, neighbours or the police ndash; believes Nina's instinctive fear that her daughter is in terrible danger. Alone, she undergoes a frantic search for Charlie. And as day turns to night, she begins to doubt not just whether they'll leave the island for their holiday ndash; but whether they will ever leave it again.