Two years ago, Father Michael Nolan was sued by the family of a seventeen-year-old girl who had committed suicide years ago after confessing to having an affair with Father Nolan. The lawsuit was thrown out, but all of Michael's secrets came out, resulting in the end of his life as a priest and ruining his relationship with his niece, Kirsten. Michael and Kirsten, a private investigator and the lead character along with her lawyer husband, Dugan, a lawyer, of David J. Walker's acclaimed Wild Onion mystery series, were quite close, especially after Michael helped her out of a big jam when she was in college, and Kirsten is devastated by the revelations about her uncle.

She still feels obligated to him, though, after everything they've been through together, and when a list of priests who have been accused of abuse appears in the Chicago newspaper, she is sympathetic. Unlike Dugan, who defended him against the lawsuit but since then would rather have less than nothing to do with him. But Kirsten's sympathy turns to real fear when one of the priests on the list turns up dead, murdered and his body mutilated. Has the list in the newspaper ignited a killer, or is it someone seeking revenge for a more personal reason?

Before they can get anywhere on the first murder, another priest turns up dead. In this latest intricately constructed novel by the award-winning author of the Mal Foley mysteries, Kirsten and Dugan try to find a killer amid the rising danger.