Now, eight years later and out on parole, Nikki Fife hires Kinsey Millhone to find out who really killed her husband. Kinsey must pursue a trail that's eight years cold: one that leads from a young boy, born deaf, whose memory cannot be trusted; to a lawyer defensively loyal to his dead partner -- and disarmingly attractive to Millhone; to a not-so-young secretary with too high a salary for far too few skills.

This trail will twist to include them all, with Kinsey following every turn until it finally twists back on itself and she finds herself face-to-face with a killer cunning enough to get away with murder.