This is the eleventh of a series of novels that revolve around JP Parker a 100 year old retired New York City private detective from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. The novels are his first person recollections as told to a young writer. Parker is hired by his long-time attorney, Annie Cleghorn, when an old client of hers, currently serving a life sentence for murder, finally agrees to reveal the alibi that he's inexplicably kept secret for 16 years. After travelling upstate to see him in prison their efforts are derailed by his suspicious suicide. This investigation drags them into a second murder mystery and a complex mix of financial malfeasance, murder, family secrets, a radical militia, politics, and terrorism. Simultaneously, when JP and his wife's attempt to adopt a child fails, Doris makes a fateful decision that could destroy their young marriage. While desperately trying to resolve everything the detective is uncomfortably forced to confront his true feelings for the woman he thought he loved.