There are colleges that could shrug off an investigation of their football recruiting practices, but not the University of Michigan. The school prides itself on doing things by the book. So when Zoe Kaplan, a Michigan Daily student sportswriter, breaks the story that Michigan is to be the subject of an NCAA probe, all hell breaks loose. Then the NCAA investigator is murdered in Michigan Stadium's end zone, surrounded by half a dozen deep-pocketed alumni. Lieutenant Karl Genesko, himself a former UM all-American, knows he needs to solve this one fast. Anneke Haagen, Karl's lover, also wants to see it solved fast. She's got problems enough of her own, including the house she and Karl have just bought together. And Zoe is hot on the trail; she wants to cooperate with the police, but she's a journalist at heart. Even her growing friendship with Anneke won't keep her from following up on a story, no matter where it leads - especially if it means beating out Charlie Cassovoy, the hotshot Detroit News columnist. Then Anneke is mugged, Zoe vanishes, and plots become counterplots as the mystery unwinds in a stunning finale in the hallowed stadium itself - before 104,000 screaming football fans.