Affluent Manhattan mother Rita Fairchild Galloway takes her four-year-old son Bobby to a puppet show at New York's Little Church Around the Corner. As they leave the show, a stranger darts "out of nowhere", grabs Bobby, and heads down the block. The mother screams for help and Bobby escapes, but Rita is far from comforted. She's sure the attempted kidnapping is the work of her wealthy estranged husband, Hugh Galloway, who could try again. All Bobby knows is that the man who scooped him up had a strange smell. Hugh maintains his innocence, but either him or Rita may be lying. It's Marian's difficult job to discover the truth from these clever and privileged people, who might well be manipulating the police for their own purposes. With Bobby apparently safe, at least for the moment, the complaints are troubling but less than urgent. Then everything changes when several people associated with the case turn up dead. It's no longer a domestic dispute among the elite. It's homicide. Marian must lead the investigation into the murders while keeping an eye on young Bobby, who may still be in danger, and while tentatively exploring new frontiers at home with lover Holland. Two powerful, strong-willed people, they are erotically drawn to each other with an intensity neither could have anticipated. Then Holland himself becomes a player in the Galloway case, suffering pain and humiliation - and perhaps worse - at the hands of a sadistic killer. As Marian searches for answers, the realization of what she faces, and what she might lose, changes her forever.