Leela Moore is a brilliant math prodigy who escapes her small Southern town to study in Boston. From the moment she hears Mishka, dark and slender, playing his violin in the subway, she is drawn to him, and they quickly become lovers.

One night Leela is inexplicably taken off the street to an interrogation centre: there has been an “incident,” an explosion on the subway; terrorists are suspected, and security is high. Leela's childhood friend Cobb, whom she hasn't seen in years, is conducting the very questionable investigation. When Cobb reveals to her that Mishka may not be all that he seems, she is forced to wonder: Whom can she believe? And when Mishka disappears, doubt erodes her love as she embarks on her own investigation to find him and unravel the mystery of his life.

In an enthralling novel as passionate as it is true to life, Janette Turner Hospital reveals an American underworld of suspicion and despair - and shows how fear and paranoia have worked their way into our daily lives.