New York: late 1958. Walter Withers had given the best years of his life to the CIA, setting honeytraps and reeling in the victims of his plots. But Withers has returned to his hometown for an easier, safer life as a private investigator. Manhattan in the late '50s is alive with new possibilities, new sounds, and new faces, including young presidential hopeful Senator Joe Keneally. Withers is assigned as a bodyguard for Keneally's girlfriend at a society gathering, a simple enough job. But the next morning she's dead—and Withers is the prime suspect. To clear his name, he must take on his old masters from the CIA, as well as J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, all of them determined to set the senator up. Will Withers, expert hunter, become another disposable victim of the trap closing in on Keneally?