Frank Clevenger, psychiatrist, is eager to leave the world of the criminally insane behind - until he receives a chilling call. Close friend and former colleague North Anderson, now chief of police on the exclusive island of Nantucket, desperately needs Clevenger's help. One of the infant twin daughters of billionaire Darwin Bishop has been murdered in her crib at the family estate. The lead suspect is her adoptive brother Billy, and investigators believe the fugitive teenage sociopath might target the surviving twin. But as Clevenger maps the Bishop family psyche, he uncovers raging emotional psychosexual dynamics that suggest Billy may be innocent. The killer could be the fabulously wealthy Darwin Bishop himself, a polished but ruthless entrepreneur. Or perhaps Julia, his stunning socialite wife, is less a grieving mother than a manipulative seductress with dark secrets to hide. Then there is Darwin Bishop's other son, Garret, a top student and star athlete who despises his father for reasons he refuses to reveal. The deeper Clevenger delves into the Bishop family, the more his own emotional demons surface.