On a steamy August evening, after an exhausting day in court, Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper is called to a crime scene. Alongside her colleagues, NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, she views the body of a young woman pulled from the water with her hands and feet obscenely tied to a ladder. But who is she? Her elegant clothes and manicured nails suggest affluent connections, but just how well-connected she is surprises even Alex.

From luxurious Fifth Avenue apartments to the avant garde galleries of Chelsea, Alex, Mike and Mercer hunt for a killer in a world where priceless art meets big money in a lethal mix.