Dying billionaire Trevor Stone hires private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro to find his missing daughter. Grief-stricken over the death of her mother and the impending death of her father, Desiree Stone has been missing for three weeks. So has the first investigator Trevor Stone hired to find her: Jay Becker, Patrick's mentor. As Patrick and Angie begin their search, they are led down a trail of half-truths and corruption into a world in which a therapeutic organization may be fronting for a dangerous cult; a hi-tech private investigation firm may be covering up lethal crimes; and a stolen cache of millions in illegal funds may be tied to both disappearances and a tanker full of heroin.

Nothing is remotely what it seems as the detectives travel from the wind-blown streets of Boston to the rum-punch sunsets of Florida's Gulf Coast and back again, searching for a woman and a man who could be saints or sinners, victims or victimizers, alive or dead. And the more Patrick and Angie discover, the more they realize that on this case, any wrong step will certainly be their last.