The murder of his former girlfriend, Sharon Lee, has been solved, and surgeon Richard Kurtz has finally managed to put the past behind him, settling back into a routine of teaching his medical students and residents and taking care of patients. He has a new love interest in graphic artist Lenore Brinkman and life has seemingly returned to normal when Rod Mahoney, an anatomy professor at Staunton College of Medicine, is found brutally murdered in his office.Lew Barent has seen a lot of dead bodies in his job as a homicide detective but even he is horrified by what has been done to Rod Mahoney. Richard Kurtz had been reluctantly drawn into the investigation of Sharon Lee's death but his assistance had proven to be vital. Barent is confident that he can count on Kurtz once again, even more so when he discovers that Mahoney and Kurtz were old friends. Rod Mahoney had led a quiet life, with a happy family and a job that he loved. Mahoney had no obvious enemies but somebody had hated him enough to murder him and to tear his body into pieces. Determined to discover who killed Rod Mahoney, and why, Kurtz and Barent suddenly find themselves investigating a twisted tale of bitter regret and decades-old revenge. But powerful forces don't want this murder solved, and Kurtz finds that while he is hunting a murderer, the murderer is hunting him.