When Ian Grant is shot dead outside a jazz club in Zurich, his wife, Beth, is grief stricken but also puzzled. Ian didn't even like jazz, so why was he at the club in the first place? And who is Amy Michaels, a mysterious American woman who had been seen earlier with Ian and who has since disappeared?

There is only one way for Beth to find out, so she flies to Zurich. The club owner, Mike Novak, has little to tell her, but when she returns to the hotel she is confronted by Amy Michaels, scared and alone. She didn't kill Ian, and Beth is the only person who can help her prove her innocence.

Beth enlists the aid of Novak, but they soon find themselves being drawn ever deeper into the clandestine world of the Cabal, a shadowy organization once dedicated to eliminating those untouchable villains who live beyond the reach of the law, but now little more than a death squad for those who can afford its services. And they have Beth and Novak firmly in their sights...