Plot summary

In the final day on death row in a London prison for murdering his girlfriend Jennie Cole, Alec Graham receives a visit from his estranged father, writer David Graham, who did not attend the trial in working overseas in Canada. Alec is well aware and David does eventually admit that he really was in a sanatorium all that time in dealing with his alcoholism, and only found out about Alec's plight when he was released yesterday. This last minute attempt by David to reconcile with him is too little, too late for Alec, who, after his lawyer Jeremy Clayton has run out of reprieves, has resigned himself to his fate despite knowing he did not commit the crime. David too is well aware that Alec is inherently not the type of person who could kill another human being, let alone one he professed to love. As such, David, without Alec's blessing who wants nothing to do with his father or false hopes at the eleventh hour, is determined to find concrete evidence as to Alec's innocence and if possible to discover who really killed Jennie. In the process, David meets the Stanfords, Alec's best friend Brian Stanford and his adoptive parents, automobile manufacturer Robert Stanford and his wife Honor Stanford, who treated Alec like family, and in whose flat Jennie's dead body was discovered. In the Stanfords, David finds a dysfunctional family, some who want to help, some who want nothing to do with Alec anymore and thus David, and all who seemingly don't want certain truths to come to light. Through it all, David is on the brink of falling out of his sobriety, which, if he does, means that he will be of little to no use in saving his son.—Huggo