One May evening in London, as a result of a chance encounter and a split-second decision, a young climatologist called Adam Kindred loses everything - home, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, mobile phone - never to get them back. Adam has no choice. The police and a ruthless hit man are after him. So he goes underground, joining the ranks of the disappeared that throng London's lowest levels as he struggles to understand how his life has unravelled so spectacularly. His journey of discovery will take him along the River Thames, from affluent Chelsea to the sink estates of the East End. On the way he will encounter aristocrats, prostitutes, evangelists and a policewoman - and version after new version of himself.