From the day he sets foot in the house in Hampstead that belonged to his new wife's first husband, Matthew Gardner begins to realise that life with Caroline is going to be infinitely rougher than he'd hoped. Two of her three teenage daughters, Flic and Imogen - charming to him in public - actually loathe him. If only their mother could see Matthew through their eyes, the girls feel, life would be so much easier. As things are, however, Flic and Imo - two young sociopaths in the making - are utterly determined to get rid of their stepfather, and chillingly ruthless in the way they go about it.