The summer before 9/11, Toronto homicide detective Miranda Quin wakes up to find her lover dead beside her, yet has no memory of going to bed with him. Horrified by the results of the forensic investigation, the normally feisty Miranda moves through events in a daze while her partner, Detective David Morgan, offers support.Because Miranda is the prime suspect, neither she nor Morgan are able to pursue the case officially, freeing them from jurisdictional constraints. They find it impossible to avoid being pulled into the rush of events that follow from one mysterious death to another in a quirky narrative that brings in a New York policeman who reads Thoreau and a beautiful and dangerous European wine expert who is not what she appears to be. As the plot moves from Toronto to New York and London, a deadly fraud leads to explosive revelations of drug smuggling as a cover for international terrorism.