Roused by a single drop of blood, Rosie Daniels wakes up to the chilling realisation that her husband is going to kill her. And she takes flight - with his credit card. Alone in a strange city, Rosie begins to build a new life: she meets Bill and she finds an odd junk shop painting, 'Rose Madder', which strangely seems to want her as much as she wants it. But it's hard for Rosie not to keep looking over her shoulder. Norman is a corrupt cop with the instincts of a predator. A man almost mythic in his monstrosity. For Rosie to survive, she must enter the myth and become a person she never knew she could be - Rose Madder. Because Norman is getting close. Rosie can feel how close he is getting . . .