When Ron Faroli is put to rest in Mellingham, Chief of Police Joe Silva knows more trouble will follow. Soon after the funeral, one of Ron's friends is found dead after a fall from a third-floor window. Although Joe finds no evidence of foul play, he is reluctant to write off Miles Stine's death as a tragic accident. Swirling around the small Community Center are stories about the two dead men, their lives on and off drugs, and the small coterie of struggling addicts they called their friends. The death of two of their number threatens the little stability some of them have managed to hold on to, and unexpected friendships emerge in the crucible of fear. Joe knows the dead men's parents, and finds himself deeply sympathetic as he investigates the second death. George Faroli has been Joe's poker buddy for years, and Edna Stine, mother of the second victim, has been a fixture in town all her life, struggling to make a better life for her children. Complicating his investigations are his feelings for Gwen McDuffy and her two children. Now that he and Gwen are living together, Joe finds it harder to remain objective when drugs threaten to invade the small family he now calls his own. Philip, Gwen's younger child, hangs out with a crowd of bored, hyped-up teens, trying desperately to fit in. Fearing the worst for her child, Gwen turns to Joe.