Still mourning the death of his wife, Private Investigator Mark Novak's erratic behaviour is seeping into his work with Innocence Incorporated, the best law firm in the USA for pro-bono cases. With his future on the line, Mark is sent to investigate a seemingly dead-end case in Southern Indiana. On the very day his wife died, the body of a teenage girl was pulled from the extensive and perilous cave system beneath Garrison. Now the man who brought the girl out, who is still believed by many to be her killer, begs Novak to uncover what really happened. But this is the Midwest, where small-town cold cases stay cold.

Garrison is a proud community, fortified against outsiders. So Mark is forced to delve into the town's secrets, and more frighteningly match wits against the man who knows the caverns better than anyone. A man who seems to have lost his mind. A man who seems to know Mark Novak all too well.