In Stoney, Massachusetts, a university town, a quiet summer resort for wealthy people, crime rates are not high. Therefore, when Edward Inman, the boss of Stoneleigh Sentinel's security company, received an alert late at night from the home of Doyle Cutler, one of his richest clients, he would conduct a routine examination and disapprove of it, until a local student claimed that she had been sexually assaulted at Cutler's home that night. Edward quickly found himself attracted by the girl's story, and his investigation led him to his old girlfriend, whose teenage son may have known the truth about what happened that night. Safety is a timely, ironic, and engaging story about adults and children, secret life and civic culture, suspicion, and sexual hysteria.