When General Griffin North, a highly decorated African American icon, is killed in a suspicious plane crash, the special commission, led by renowned federal judge Simon Esterhaus, deems it a tragic accident caused by pilot error. But Mollie Smith of the Criminal Investigation Division vows to keep the investigation alive -- single-handedly and on her own terms, if necessary. Certain the general was assassinated, and keenly aware that certain officials in high places would have stopped at nothing to keep a black man from a possible vice-presidential nomination, Mollie intensifies the pitch of her inquiry. Then Mollie -- her investigation nearly complete -- is found murdered. Rachel Collins, Mollie's protÔegÔe and close friend, is left to follow the scent of conspiracy enveloping the dead.