At the end of an especially raucous day at his neighborhood bar, private eye Leo Waterman is surprised to see his old flame, Rebecca Duval, walk in the door. But King County's medical examiner is here on business, not pleasure. Two dead bodies, covered by an old coat that once belonged to Leo's father, have turned up in the trunk of a car. The only thing that seems to connect the men is a controversial local church and its charismatic pastor. With help from Rebecca and surveillance expert Carl Cradduck, Leo begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together. While a pair of goons do their best to chase him off the case, Leo painstakingly retraces the victims' final days, charting their unusual search for redemption-from a downtown homeless encampment to suburban McMansions to the shores of Salvation Lake. There Leo must confront an opponent hell-bent on retribution in order to get to the twisted truth about the killings.