In her late teens, Meredith Berg-Olsen had had all the makings of a runway model. Now in her late forties, after everything she had been through - including horrors that John could only guess at - she looked bloodless instead of pale, skeletal instead of slender, more dead than alive. John Penrose has two secrets. One is the roommate he keeps hidden from the world: his high-school sweetheart, Meredith. His other secret is the reason he feels compelled to look after her. Contrition is a horror story with noir undertones and an atmosphere of mounting dread.