In a world of terror and uncertainty, what does one small death matter?

The body hanging from a tree in a peaceful wood appears to Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot to be a suicide. Further investigation into the sad demise of Mark Hardcastle, the set designer for the local amateur theater company, leads to the corpse of Mark's older, wealthier lover, brutally bludgeoned to death.

Suddenly the case demands the attention of Chief Inspector Alan Banks, called back from his vacation even though nothing suggests this wasn't a crime of passion followed by remorse and self-destruction. But machinations within the shadow world of secret government only add to the colors of darkness already shading this troubling affair. And a stubborn policeman who will not be frightened away could lose everything in one terrifying, explosive instant.