"Murder is merely an extreme means to rewrite a disagreeable history." Cooper is an overly introspective ex-cop and recovering drunk, estranged from his past and reconciled to a lonely self-sufficiency. But then he takes on a client accused of a brutal murder and finds himself confronting his own chaotic history, complete with characters that won't stay neatly in the past: an ex-Soviet cop and ex-drinking buddy; his hostile son (who is also the lead investigator trying to convict Cooper's client); and the woman that got him fired from the police force. History must be unwound, going back in time to other crimes and victims. Suspects and victims change places as Cooper renegotiates his own past - and his future -- even as he confronts the layers of madness, lust and greed barely concealed beneath the surface of human relationships.