How well do parents know their children? Mrs. Towers thought her daughter June was a good girl. Why, then, did the pretty teen turn up dead atop a rubbish heap in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park? Had she gone there to rendezvous with her killer? Had she always done what mother said?

Lt. Frank Hastings has some answers and some obvious suspects, but not all of either. He keeps digging, and it's a good thing. There's more to this than a wayward girl, as a second murder confirms. It's up to Hastings to stop a third.