Homicide detective Kate Farrer took a four-month leave from the force when the stress of the job threatened to crush her. Now she's back, at a crime scene as brutal as any she's ever witnessed. The charred corpse of a young woman, burned beyond recognition, smolders on a bed near a bag full of baby items. An autopsy reveals that the victim had recently given birth. Yet no child has been found.

Teaming up with a new partner, Oliver Parke, Kate struggles to hold her own demons at bay--while also pursuing leads in the seemingly unrelated affair of a missing teenager who was keeping secrets that may have cost her her life. But as disturbing clues begin linking their two investigations--and another unspeakably cruel murder secures the knot--Kate and Oliver realize with horror that a desperate killer's next victim might be the most innocent one of all.