At first glance it appears to be a random multiple murder -- a prominent plastic surgeon, his nurse, and his receptionist shot dead in their plush Century City office. But to LAPD Homicide Detective Jessie Drake, the savage nature of Dr. Ronald Bushnell's fatal wounds suggests a crime of intense passion and bitter retribution. On the surface, the slain surgeon had everything: respect, money, a palatial home, a loving wife and daughter. But his foster son -- a troubled youngloner with dark spaces in his history -- hasn't been seen since the murders, which suggests the boy is a material witness, a premediated killer...or another victim. And suddenly Jessie's search for the missing teenager is leading the smart, conscience-driven detective across a razor-thin boundary that separates love from hatred, as she races to uncover a deadly truth that lies somewhere in a harrowing past of horrific personal tragedy and tainted blood.