Deep in the woods, in the middle of a summer night, Nero wildly plays his violin in his Secret Place. The screech of bow striking strings travels beyond those woods, and sometimes is faintly heard by lobstermen pulling their traps. They've never stopped to analyze it. In fact, no one has ever stopped to analyze Nero. That is why he is an expert at killing. Up in Boston, J.T. O'Rourke's life has entered another downward spiral, but then he's offered a job as a reporter for a local bi-weekly paper at The Point on Cape Cod. J.T. welcomes the opportunity not only to escape another stifling summer manning a pub, but also to leave behind a traumatic secret that haunts his dreams. J.T enjoys the postcard scenery of The Point until a summer kid goes missing and everything changes. As the last person to see the teenager alive, J.T. is thrust into the limelight as the disappearance opens old wounds from a cold case involving the brutal murder of a local boy on Christmas Eve, 1972. Who is Nero? J.T. desperately searches for the answer, but what he discovers will unwittingly endanger even more innocent people, including the woman he has fallen for.