Leathan Wilkey thinks he has been framed for murder by the victim’s father.

Leathan Wilkey has been hired by a diplomat to find a nineteen-year-old.

He’s the son of a friend–I’m doing a favor, says the diplomat, who gives Leathan the teenager’s name and a photo and tells him where the kid usually hangs out.

Leathan finds the teenager within the day. When he reaches him, the kid has just been shot. His dying words to Leathan are: Protect Marianne.

Leathan is left to find Marianne, find out why she needs protecting and from whom, all the while puzzling at what the diplomat didn’t tell him.