Lesley Smith is turning twelve and she means to stay in one house and go to a regular school. Lesley's father takes special photographs on her birthday to record her growing up. She does not want her father to take photographs of her anymore. Lesley's mother died in a car accident when she was three, so Lesley asks for advice from teacher and police officer Fiona Benson. This begins a chain of events that will see John Smith's paranoia erupt into violence that threatens the lives of Lesley and her friends and raises questions about who John Smith really is.