Our protagonist, Fiona talks early on about her troubled childhood, revealing why she is now plagued by the dangerous habit of self-harming in which she indulges.
She is an intelligent, good looking girl, in her early twenties, with a career in the nursing profession.
Fiona lives with her mother and sister in England. Her father died a few years back.

The habit was difficult to hide and known about by her family. Her mother being so concerned felt that a trip on a cruise maybe what the girl needed to help improve her health issues.
It was on this trip that she meets Charles, a young man looking for love. He makes it a daily quest to begin a courtship with Fiona, who really wants nothing serious in her life at the time.
On this trip Fiona manages to avoid hurting herself and mother is hopeful that her daughters habit may become a thing of the past.

After arriving back home several attempts to self harm are made over the months that follow and she ends up in hospital. She starts to dislike her family and Charles, refuses to return home where the reception will be hostile, when not granted she decides to discharge herself in the middle of the night and flees to the South of France. Her family fail to know her where about’s for some long time and involve an investigator to find her.
She took her self harm kit and medications with her to France and during her time there she was happy and experienced a number of varying encounters. She also did not harm herself. She finds work and accommodation along with kindness. The investigator finds her and relays how concerned her family are to know that she is safe and well. He implores her to at least make contact and advise of her well-being.

Guilt brings Fiona home, and this is where troubles and near death experiences occur.