By appearances Peter Scattergood leads a privileged life: a post as Assistant District Attorney, a loving wife, and a townhouse in Philadelphia's exclusive Society Hill. Assigned to an explosive homicide case—the murder of the mayor's nephew and the young man's beautiful mistress—the power and prestige he's always craved seem within his grasp.

But soon Peter's illusion of success shatters. His wife walks out on their seven-year marriage and vanishes. The double-murder case casts a shadow of doubt on his most trusted peers. And, in a moment of weakness, Peter enters into an affair with a woman whose greatest skill is arousing suspicion.

Now, Peter Scattergood is about to discover the desperate lengths he will go to uncover the terrible truth that lies with deadly patience somewhere between the mystery of his wife's disappearance and the dangerous secret at the heart of a shocking crime.