Mark Rubin claims he and his beautiful wife had a flawless, happy marriage. Yet one day, without warning, Natalie gathered up their children and vanished. The police can't do anything because all the evidence indicates she left willingly. So the successful Baltimore furrier turns to private investigator Tess Monaghan.

Tess doesn't know quite what to make of her client, a wealthy Orthodox Jew who refuses to shake her hand and doles out vitally important information in grudging dribs and drabs. But the deeper she digs, the more Tess suspects that the motive behind Natalie's reckless flight lies somewhere in the gap between what Rubin will not say and what he refuses to believe. An intricate web of betrayal and vengeance is already beginning to unravel, as memory begets rage, and rage leads to desperation -- and murder. And suddenly the lives of three innocent children are dangling by the slenderest of threads.