A parent’s worst nightmare: a late night knock on the door, a police officer waiting outside. A promising high school senior has been found dead of an apparent drug overdose in a nearby park. Now his parents must learn to cope with their loss, trying not to become drug casualties themselves. The father’s attempts are animated by memories of an old friend lost to drugs twenty years before, the mother’s complicated by family difficulties and history. As a local police detective investigates, he must juggle the search for justice, an old friendship and his own inner demons. The story takes a darker turn when his investigation reveals new evidence spurring on the father’s quest to find the person who brought drugs into his son’s all-too-brief life, the Starter of the title. Mayhem ensues, suspicions rise, lines are crossed as these three characters find themselves entwined in a headlong rush toward a rendezvous with death.