Lincoln and Amelia are recruited to track down a cargo ship carrying two dozen illegal Chinese immigrants, as well as the notorious human smuggler and killer known as Youling - the Ghost. But when the capture goes disastrously wrong, Lincoln and Amelia find themselves in a race to stop the Ghost before he can track down and murder the two surviving families who have vanished deep into the labrynthine world of New York City's Chinese community.



Over the next forty-eight hours the Ghost ruthlessly hunts for the families while Rhyme, aided by a policeman from mainland China, struggles to find thme before they die and Sachs pursues a very different kind of policework - forming a connecton with one of the immigrants that may have consequences going to the core of her relationship with Rhyme, her oartner and lover.