Blake Wellesley is the golden child and heir of Senator Casper Wellesley and his wife Lenanne, the logical successor, in the family's eyes, to his father's seat. Blake is running for Senator for New York, much as his father did some thirty-five years before, and is focused and determined this time, having been unsuccessful in his bid a decade earlier. However, the murder of the bike messenger Caleb Shimansky throws up an unexpected link to a young woman, Olivia Debiasse, who was part of that earlier run and was murdered at that time. Blake, when asked to help the police with their enquiries, tries to do so on his own terms and surrounded by a phalanx of lawyers.