One warm June night, a university student called Kirsten is viciously attacked in a park by a serial killer.

As the killer continues, leaving a longer trail of mutilated corpses, Kirsten confronts her memories and becomes convinced not only that she can, but that she must remember what happened.

Interwoven with Kirsten's story is that of Martha Browne, a woman who arrives in the Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby with a sense of mission.

With this alias, she assaults and places Keith McLaren into a coma, and finally kills her assailant Greg Eastcote.

Conversely, Whitby, fishing port and famous tourist destination, represents the rough life on the Yorkshire coast.

Since this was the home town of "England's first poet" Cædmon, who is the eponym for the book, Whitby plays an important role within the story.

Other towns and villages on the north-east coast of England like Staithes, Robin Hood's Bay and Scarborough are mentioned when Kirsten visits them to look for her attacker.

According to legend, Cædmon was at first unable to sing but then he was inspired to compose vernacular English poetry after a dream in which he is told, "Praise ye Creation" (p. 291).

The "student slasher" feels connected with Cædmon since he also had a dream in which a stranger told him to "sing of destruction" (p. 291).

The novel is based on the crimes of Peter Sutcliffe, infamous as the "Yorkshire Ripper" who was convicted in 1981 of the murders of thirteen women and attacks on seven more from 1975 to 1980.

His attacks were similar to those of the "Student Slasher": he struck his victims to unconsciousness, e.g. with a ball-peen hammer, and slashed them with a knife.

Throughout the story, Kirsten remembers quotations from works of famous authors, with which she can identify, e.g. Yeats' "Long-Legged Fly" or Coleridge's ode "Dejection".

Another significant aspect is that Kirsten learns that she is a "born victim" which - in her interpretation - means that she has survived for a reason.

The Kirsten before the attack is full of the joys of life: she enjoys literature, loves music prefers to be outdoors.

Though she is happy and a bit naive, she has clear plans for her life—a future of some kind with her boyfriend Galen, as well as her ongoing education.

She feels guided by her spirits — the souls of the victims of her attacker — and believes in superstition, which supports her "mission".

In the end the paperweight becomes a symbol of Kirsten herself: she breaks free from her chains by letting it fall into the sea.

Another important aspect are the places where Kirsten always hides and can get rid of all her feelings: nature and the box in St. Mary's church.