In Quinsigamond, a worn-out New England factory town, a soulless cabal has come to rule the streets. Gilrein knows this dark world, and experienced its treacheries firsthand when his wife, a fellow police officer, was supposedly killed in the line of duty. Now Gilrein has exchanged his badge for the wheel of a Checker cab, yet he still cannot let go of the past or the long-buried instincts he honed on the beat.

When he discovers startling and dangerous evidence concerning his wife's death, he begins an investigation that will plumb the deaths of a macabre conspiracy and pit him against a force more sinister than any he's encountered before.

Gilrein has only an eccentric grab bag of alleged allies, including a refugee from an Eastern European country who is haunted by memories of a terrible day there; the aloof Inspector with his uncanny ability to make criminals talk; and Gilrein's ex-lover, a young academic obsessed with a century-old murder.