While minding his lady friend, Yolanda's, elephant rescue booth at Rockport's Sea Fair, Dave Holman sees two teenage boys fighting atop the carnival's giant Ferris wheel. One boy throws the other from the ride to his death in the attractions machinery. Holman goes straight to the police to volunteer as an eye witness to what is obviously murder, but is informed that the case has already been ruled an accident; death by misadventure. On further investigation, Dave Holman learns that A J Laudermaelk IV, the boy who pushed his friend from the carnival ride, is the son of a prominent attorney from one of the founding families of the towns of Rockport and Jordan. The dead child, Johnny Dominguez', family hire Holman to gather evidence that their son was murdered and bring young Laudermaelk to justice, but as Dave Holman is assembling proof, in the form of videos of the murder, Hurricane Nathan strikes. The storm rips apart Holman's office and scatters all his case files to the wind. To make matters worse, Holman learns that Ames Laudermaelk III is out to halt his investigation by whatever means he can muster, including calling in political favors against the Texas detective and even possibly arranging another murder.