Jack has been on hiatus since the events in Harbingers. With his lover Gia's encouragement he dips a toe back into the fix-it pool. Christy Pickering's eighteen-year-old daughter is dating Jerry Bethlehem, a man twice her age. Christy sensed something shady and sinister about him, so she hired a private investigator to look into his past. But the PI isn't returning her calls. Will Jack find out why? Jack learns there's a very good reason for the unreturned calls: The PI is dead, a victim of a bizarre water-torture murder. As Jack delves into Jerry Bethlehem's past he learns that the man is not who he says he is. Who--and what--he is will have a devastating effect on Jack's life and future, adding another piece to the puzzle of who he really is and why he's been drafted into this cosmic shadow war.