Professor Christopher Lawrence loves teaching at Barton University. Now a candidate for the dean's job, Lawrence knows he is ready for the challenge sure to be laced with backstabbing, lies, and manipulation. In the meantime, Lawrence has grown tired of living in a large house alone and decides to invite a foreign exchange student to rent the apartment over his garage, thinking the two will enjoy lively, culturally diverse conversations. Within a week, Mustafa Aziz, a slightly aloof exchange student from Liberia, moves in. And with that, everything changes in Professor Lawrence's quiet, uneventful life.
Two months later, Aziz mysteriously disappears. After Lawrence decides to enter his apartment to see if anything is amiss, he discovers Aziz's wallet, a strange coded message, and an ornate prayer rod. Driven to find out what has happened to Aziz after the police brush off the young man's disappearance, Lawrence begins to investigate, unknowingly beginning a chain reaction that soon transforms his once peaceful academic life into a twisted path of ominous events.
In this intriguing mystery tale, a college professor soon discovers that his attempts to do the right thing may just have deadly consequences.