Lincoln Rhyme returns—to take on the terrifying world of Chinese organized crime.
The U.S. government gives Rhyme an almost impossible task. But the forensic specialist, together with his partner Amelia Sachs, identifies the location of a cargo ship transporting twenty-five illegal immigrants from China. They also find the famous carrier of live cargo and a killer codenamed the Phantom.
However, the capture of the Phantom turns into a disaster, and Lincoln and Amelia race against time: they must stop the Phantom before he manages to find and kill the two surviving immigrant families, who are lost in the labyrinths of New York’s Chinatown.
For forty-eight hours, the Phantom relentlessly hunts the immigrants, while Rhyme, with the help of a police officer from China, tries to find them first. Meanwhile Sachs does work that’s uncharacteristic for her—establishing close contact with one of the immigrants—which may affect her relationship with Lincoln Rhyme, her partner and lover.