It's 1675 and eleven years have passed since Pieter Tonneman brought a brutal murderer to justice ... and married the beautiful widow Racqel Mendoza. Although the marriage made her an outcast in the city's small, close-knit Jewish community, it has been a happy one for Racqel and Pieter. Former sheriff of the island, Tonneman has now settled into life as husband, father, and businessman. But suddenly the air is filled with terror, an old debt has come due, and events have compelled the Dutchman back to duty. From the taverns and into the streets, the whispers grow louder by the hour - talk of devil worship and of witchcraft, dark tales of a conspiracy among the Jews. And when the killer trades horseflesh for human flesh, his knife slashing with deadly sacrificial precision, the city's simmering hatreds and superstitions threaten to boil and burn. Ostracized, distrusted, too independent for her own good, no one is more at risk than Tonneman's wife. A murderer is on the loose in New-York, and many are ready to blame Racqel. But someone is ready to make her the next victim.