Dr. Michael Stone has learned the hard way that her profession invites danger: she's a forensic psychologist - an expert in analyzing and, in a perfect world, outsmarting the criminal mind. But some deviants will never be understood or rehabilitated - like the purely evil perpetrator who has crossed Michael's path before. Alex B. Willy is a sadistic child molester, a man of monstrous deeds and chilling obsessions. Attempting to profile the psychological makeup of a molester, Michael glimpsed the darkness within through her interviews with the incarcerated Willy; flattered by her attention, he had disclosed the modus operandi of a pedophile, and even boasted about his crimes on audiotape. Alex Willy has been granted a retrial and is sprung from prison. And the one person who threatens his freedom, who knows the depths of his sickness and his seamless lies, in Michael Stone.