Private investigator Donald Strachey and his longtime lover, Timothy Callahan, are called to the bedside of the ailing Skeeter McCaslin–Timmy’s first lover from their high school days. Skeeter’s lover, Eric Osborne, was murdered some months ago, and Skeeter suspects that it wasn’t simply a random act. In addition, Janet Osborne, Eric’s sister, has just survived an attempt on her life, and Skeeter believes that both were attacked to silence them before the sale of their family newspaper. Eric and his sister, along with their mother, favored selling the paper to a small firm that will preserve the paper’s tradition of liberal advocacy, while conservative relatives want it sold to a politically reactionary chain that will pay much more for it.

Agreeing to help look into the circumstances of Eric’s murder and the attack on Janet as a favor to Timmy’s first boyfriend, Strachey must now unravel the closely held family secrets behind the attacks before the culprit succeeds again.