At 1:15 AM, a Minnesota political fixer answers his doorbell. The next thing he knows, he's on the floor of a moving car, lying on a plastic sheet, his body wet with blood. Lucas Davenport is investigating another case when the trail leads to the man's disappearance, then, very troublingly, to the Minneapolis police department itself, and then, most troublingly of all, to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons.