"Dying is a wild night and a new road" wrote Emily Dickinson. The sharpness of this poetic vision takes on a new meaning when, during the annual pageant commemorating Paul Revere's ride, a prominent citizen's gruesomely ventilated body (still in Minuteman costume) signals a murderer is on the loose.

Homer Kelly, celebrated Emersonian scholar and legendary ex-homicide detective, happens to be in Concord completing his academic opus. When the local constabulary asks him for help, he willingly agrees.