Terry Rader is cleaning his rental port-o-lets in MacArthur Park when he finds a young woman, her blue hospital scrubs covered with thick, dried blood. Her name is Denise White. She is a nurse practitioner, employed by a USC health clinic in the mid-Wilshire district. She is the cousin of Lieutenant Frank White of the LAPD and the favorite niece of Charles White, the first black soldier to receive the Medal of Honor in Korea and still-in his late 80's-a very dangerous individual.

Gwen Harrison is sent from Washington to investigate Denise's death. In Los Angeles she meets Charles and they agree to work together. They learn that a similar crime in a similar location occurred in the distant past. Eventually Gwen discovers the connection between the two crimes, and with a determined but diminished Charles follows the murderer to the Wind River Valley of Wyoming, where Gwen is forced to make a decision she might regret forever as she ends the case in a pool of mountain water, rich with fresh blood. Uniting Gwen Harrison with key figures from his Jack Grant crime series, Richard B. Schwartz has produced a haunting novel built upon elements of a tragic and true story.