It begins with a murder in Manhattan. An elderly Jewish shopkeeper is found slain beneath a mirror scrawled with a hate-filled message in Arabic. It falls to Butch Karp, Deputy D.A. for Special Projects, to keep the hunt for the killers, and a subsequent prosecution, from igniting a full-scale ethnic war. But Karp has his doubts about the handling of this case - and another high-profile one, a cop killing - by the brash head of the D.A.'s homicide unit. Battling growing feelings of unease about his own religious identity, as well as the dangerous lifestyle of his wife, Marlene, whose detective agency specializes in domestic violence, he can't begin to suspect how the double homicides are linked...or the far-reaching consequences they will have on both the city and his family.