New Year's Eve finds Scarpetta at a scuba diver's murder scene thirty feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface. The victim is Ted Eddings, an investigate reporter known to Scarpetta. When a morgue assistant driving Scarpetta's car is brutally murdered and radioactive material is discovered on the passenger seat, the case envelops Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and police captain Pete Marino in a world where both cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned detective work are critically offensive weapons.