What kind of person would take a baby, asleep in his pram?
What kind of a person would leave him there?
 
Alys Greenwood is a privileged overachiever. Hollie Nelson is a drifter and a thief. In a cinema in York, one Friday morning in August, both women make impulsive decisions that will bring their lives into collision. Hollie finds herself with the baby she never wanted - but might, somehow, need. Alys finds her deepest fear realized, and her darkest wish granted, when her son disappears.
 
MONSTER traces nine hours in the lives of two women, deep in crises that are both opposite and eerily alike. On the face of it, the resourceful Hollie and the fragile Alys have little in common. But they’re linked in many unexpected ways. Both have troubled histories. Both stand at a crossroads in life. And both have secrets to hide from those closest to them, which tremble on the brink of exposure. As the long, hot Friday wears on - and baby Tristan’s fate hangs in the balance - Hollie and Alys’ moments of madness lead them on journeys of self-discovery that will change their lives forever.