Kay Scarpetta has arranged to meet an inmate at the high-security Georgia Prison for Women. Against advice, she is determined to hear this woman out - she believes the prisoner may hold some answers to the murder of her former deputy. But soon she finds connections to a string of grisly killings.
As she learns more, Scarpetta is compelled to conclude that this is the only the beginning of a terrying terrain of conspiracy on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it...