in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, the mummified body of a black Navy lieutenant is found bolted inside the boiler of a deactivated battleship. While the cause of death is clear, the officer's identity is not. With nerve ends raw from the media focus on recent scandals, the Pentagon bypasses its own investigative service and appoints a commander, Dan Collins, and a civilian, Grace Snow, to conduct an inquiry. Together they resolve to ignore the Navy's political sensitivities and conduct a by-the-book murder investigation. But then they uncover evidence that points back to Washington, D.C., and a two-year-old unsolved case involving another black Navy lieutenant, a beautiful young woman, who died under violent circumstances.