As did the two previous novels, the third John Cardinal rural police procedural gains inspiration from an actual case. A confused red-haired woman stumbles into a bar, her body marked all over by black-fly bites and the bullet lodged in her head robbing her of both memory and identity. Trying to discover who attempted to murder the woman, and why, draws Algonquin Bay homicide detective Cardinal into an investigation involving bikers, drug dealers, and a Cuban cult that practices human sacrifice.