Stone Barrington and Holly Barker, Stuart Woods' busiest heroes, pair up once again. This yarn finds Stone traveling to Dark Harbor, Maine, after his cousin, Dick Stone, and his family are found murdered at their house there. The local police think it was a murder-suicide, but when Stone learns from his CIA contact, Lance Cabot, that Dick was working covertly for the CIA and had just received a big promotion, Stone decides to look into matters himself. Accompanied by Lance, Holly, and Dino Bacchetti, his trusted former NYPD partner, Stone heads to Maine where things get much more complicated fast.