When Marie Corrigan, a Cleveland defense attorney with a history of falsifying evidence and no shortage of enemies, is found dead in the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton, most people would agree that she had it coming. Forensic investigator Theresa MacLean is summoned to the crime scene, but even before she enters the room she knows that she's walking into a forensic nightmare because crime scenes at hotels, even the most luxurious, are teeming with trace evidence that has been left behind by innumerable guests related and unrelated to the murder. However, what Theresa finds is even worse than she imagined.