At the end of his bestselling debut, Wednesday's Child, Shane Dunphy was burnt out, and wrote of leaving his job as a child protection worker. But he returned to the profession he loved, and in Last Ditch House he revisits four more cases from his childcare days, using a technique similar to the first book. The narrative is set a year after Wednesday's Child and tells of a summer spent working with four unusual cases for a voluntary child-protection group.