The time is the present the setting Cedar Rapids Iowa the hero private detective Walsh a man weary of a past he cannot escape Walsh has recently retired from the sheriffs office and he is preoccupied with wrenching personal turmoil But Walshs past wont leave him alone it comes to visit him one day in the person of Lisa Pennyfeather the wife of a man Walsh sent to prison for murder twelve years before Lisa wants Walsh to clear her husbands name Walsh is reluctant but he is drawn into the case when a womans corpse is discovered in the Pennyfeathers back yard a week after George Pennyfeather is released from prison Is George being framed and if so was he framed twelve years before Walsh torn by the thought that he may have helped put an innocent man through twelve years of hell starts looking for answers Are Georges former employees and family friends Paul and Richard Heckart as upstanding and compassionate as they appear Was Lisa having an affair with lowlife wheelerdealer Karl Jankov the man George was convicted of killing Who was the woman found murdered in the Pennyfeathers back yard and what was her connection to the Jankov murder As Walsh delves deeper into the case he discovers that things thought long buried can rear up suddenly ominously out of the night