Harris County Cold Case Detective Pete Scallion has recently suffered the devastating personal loss of the only person who meant anything in his life. In dealing with his grief, he is contemplating whether to retire, or return to the only job he has ever held---solving homicide cases. Ultimately, he decides he has to, or risk going insane alone in the house they shared. The case confronting him upon his return to action is the eight year-old brutal double homicides of an elderly couple in Spring, Texas, just north of Houston. With no enemies, the elderly pair's deaths seem unsolvable at first. A clue that had been disregarded during the initial investigation soon leads Scallion to Central Texas, where he becomes involved in a recent murder that proves to be directly related to his cold case, and then finally, into a quagmire of the depths of human depravity