Millie is down and nearly out; a former convict, fired from her job and living out of her car, is desperate for a fresh start. She gets a job as a housemaid for a wealthy couple, Nina and Andrew Winchester, who live in a mansion with their young daughter Cecilia.
As she settles down, Nina becomes increasingly erratic and volatile, or indeed, downright bizarre. Their gardener, Enzo, warns Millie to get out, but she continues since she doesn’t have an option. Over time, she ends up having an affair with Andrew, and Nina becomes increasingly unstable, until Andrew kicks Nina out. The next day, Millie finds herself imprisoned in the attic.
The narrative switches to Nina’s perspective. Andrew is extremely controlling and abusive. He routinely locks up and tortures Nina, and has the world convinced that Nina is mentally unstable. It is revealed that Nina hired Millie for a reason. Given Millie’s past in vigilante violence, she is hoping that Andrew will shift his attentions towards her, and she will not take it lying down.
Switching back to Millie, after days of torture, Millie manages to turn the tables and imprison Andrew instead, and force him to endure all he inflicted on herself and Nina. This ends with Andrew tortured to death; Nina returns and takes the blame for what happened, but a sympathetic cop lets her off. She pays Millie a large sum of money, who goes on to another household with a similar abusive man.
This is a well-written thriller with a tight narrative, but with some glaring inconsistencies. The main plot seems very far-fetched; it seems unlikely that such a long-shot would surely work, but somehow, for Nina, everything clicks into place, including the cop who lets her off. There is also the miraculous saviour Enzo who just exists. All told, worth reading once, but not sure it deserves all the accolades this book has received.