The first sentence gives away the doomed nature of the book: Chris Marshall met the girl he was going to kill on a warm Oxford evening....

While rigging up a party he inadvertently rescues a beautiful young woman in a white dress from upper class thugs.

After this, he goes to his father's house (his parents have divorced three weeks ago; their emotionless parting chills him), and meets his mistress, his secretary Diane.

After another date (in which they ironically see Romeo and Juliet) Chris asks Jenny to spend the weekend with him at his father's house after they kiss passionately in the park.

She comes from Yorkshire (and still retains a Northern accent), and after suffering at his hands very literally leaves home on the morning of her sixteenth birthday.

The next day, when she leaves, Jenny finds that the house in which she and her friends had been illegally squatting has been the victim of a police drugs raid.

Her hippie flatmates are taken into custody for possession of cannabis, and, despite her innocence, Jenny flees the scene, since she does not trust the police as they failed to help her over her father's abuse.

They tried to get the contents of a Securicor van, but they failed, and in the ensuing chaos one of the thick witted Carson brothers killed one of the security guards.

Barry felt his conscience pricking him, and after making off with the thousands of pounds from the van turned the Carson brothers in to the Law.

Barry Springer changed his name by deed poll to Miller, and he, his wife and his small son were relocated from London to Oxford under the Witness Protection Act.

Her boss, who, like most of the men she meets, reminds her of her father, seeks to take advantage of her, and she avoids him as much as possible, spending all her spare time searching for Chris.

When Chris asks him why he has it, he gives a kaleidoscopic version of the truth about his dealings with the Carson gang, shifting the drama to Ireland and the IRA.

The truth is less shocking; Barry had simply asked the girl to do some painting and hang a few curtains to make the place more liveable.

Carson leaves, Barry arrives, and Chris enters the chalet to find his beloved Jenny on the bed, soaked in her blood and riddled with bullets.

The Dutch production company Dynamic Entertainment DEH optioned the rights to adapt The Butterfly Tattoo as a motion picture and Phil Hawkins, became attached to direct the film in early 2007.

Children's writer Stephen Potts adapted the story for the screen and auditions were held across the country to find the young cast.