A tortured body plunges two detectives into a world where truth is weakness, deception is admired, and death is just another cost of doing business.
Mobile, Alabama, police investigators Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus race to a crime scene to find a young reporter who's been brutally murdered. The case, seemingly the work of a lone psycopath, widens to include a poisoned convict, a dead psychiatrist, and a teacher slaughtered four years earlier.
As they run down blind alleys, the man they're tracking changes his appearance, amasses thousands of dollars, and even rents office space.
The bizarre case leads the detectives to a wealthy and philanthropic family whose works are widely admired. But the family is divided against itself, each member having a private agenda.
It gradually becomes clear that Ryder and Nautilus aren't alone in their pursuit of the killer, and that being cops doesn't make them safe.
It makes them targets.