At the Washington, D.C. newspaper called The Tribune, a young woman has been murdered. And the hunt for her killer is making sensational and lethal headlines.

The victim was fresh out of journalism school, hoping to make a splash at the Trib - until a maintenance man finds her in a supply closet, brutally strangled to death. The journalists are at once horrified and anxious to solve this crime before the cops do, and put this scandal to rest. But the men and women at the Metropolitan Police Department aren't going to let byline-hungry reporters get in their way. While the newspaper forms a task force, the cops create one of their own. Then a second woman is killed in Franklin Square. Like the first, she was young, attractive, and worked in the media.

For veteran Trib reporter Joe Wilcox, whose career is mired in frustration and disappointment, the case strikes close to home. His daughter is a beautiful, rising TV news star. As his relationship grows closer to a MPD detective, Joe sees a chance to renew himself as a reporter and a man. Spearheading the Trib's investigation, he maneuvers it into a trap baited with a secret from his past.

Suddenly, Joe is risking his career, his marriage, and even his daughter's life by playing a dangerous game with a potential serial killer. A police detective is bending the rules for the reporter she likes and trusts, but may not know as well as she thinks she does. As Joe's daughter finds her way into the heart of a frantic manhunt, the walls come down between family, friendships, ethics, and ambition - and a killer hides in plain site.