In mid-Eighties Windsor, Vietnamese gangs and Chinese organized crime meet head on in violent turf war as they go after a University of Windsor anthropology professor and $2,000,000 in ancient treasure he stole from China. Meanwhile, a brutal serial rapist and killer terrorizes the city. Three psychologically damaged women - the professor's wife, his 17 year old daughter, and a private detective - are drawn into this world of brutal psychological terror, raw physical and emotional violence, and international crime and intrigue. Can they survive? In the tradition of Graham Greene and Elmore Leonard. Working on several levels, this psychological crime thriller is also the story of how these three women cope and ultimately survive their journey into hell. Payge Turner was considered a good cop. At least she was until she was asked to leave the Windsor Police Force for an unprovoked angry attack on a suspect. Payge has a darkness in her that made her dangerous to work with and difficult to control. Now Payge is a private detective. It's easier to control her darkness when she works alone. Payge's mind is on the current rash of brutal rape-murders in Windsor when she is hired to investigate the disappearance of 17 year old Susan Markham, the daughter of a respected anthropologist. Susan doesn't fit the rapist's M.O., but Payge begins to suspect something more sinister has happened to this attractive student. Within days, Payge must cope with the turf war between oriental gangs, stolen Chinese treasure, a father who seems unconcerned that his daughter has been kidnapped, and a client who isn't telling her everything. The dark streets of Windsor hide secrets in bars, in families, in the shaded corners where rapists hide. Joining forces with her old police partner, Yvonne Laforet, Payge is soon on the trail of the missing woman. What she doesn't realize is that the most frightening thing she'll discover is hidden deep within herself.