Harry may not be a native son, but he loves New Orleans. He loves it despite its corruption and snobbery, its inbred prejudices, and especially the violence that permeates the city. New Orleans killed his wife, leaving him alone with his nine-year-old son, Ike. Despite everything, Harry deeply loves the place. Now, though, Harry meets Elizabeth Bennett, a dangerously beautiful woman. Elizabeth, brilliant and mercurial, is also the heiress to one of the country's great fortunes. An outsider in the city, Elizabeth draws Harry out of his grief and forces him to encounter new levels of corruption and new kinds of violence - blackmail, kidnapping, and murder. Even though everyone, with the notable exception of Ike, tells him to stay far away, Harry is still drawn to Elizabeth. But the cost of this obsession is even greater than any of them ever imagined. First, Elizabeth's husband is murdered, and Harry's the one to find the body. Next, he's brutally attacked and Ike is kidnapped. Surrounded by chaos on all sides, Harry finds himself making deadly moves and deadlier decisions than he's ever dreamed possible to keep from losing everything he holds dear to the dark side of the city he loves.