The case taken up by Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro—private detectives from Boston—is not an easy one. Psychiatrist Dyanndra Warren and her student son have somehow attracted the wrath of an Irish mafia killer and need protection. The investigation carried out by the detectives coincides with an outbreak in the city of bloody murders committed with special brutality. The killer’s handwriting points to one person—a serial killer who has been serving a life sentence for 20 years. Is it possible that he still has helpers at large? Not long before his death, all the victims receive their “graphs” by mail. This photo comes to Angela as well. There is even less time for the detectives to unravel the terrible secret, the origins of which lie in a crime from a quarter of a century ago…