When Coleman Dane's sister vanishes, he vows to nail the man he's certain is responsible. She was romanced by the suave and fabulously wealthy architect Dix Trevellian, and Dane thinks it can hardly be coincidence that five other women who dated Dix have disappeared as well. Although she doesn't know it, Sharan Norbeth's good looks, artistic talent, and physical handicap make her likely to suit Dix's particular tastes, which is why Dane uses the clout of his government position to blackmail her into helping him snare his suspect. Because he knows that the Trevellians would be more than eager to take under their wing the hottest new artist of the New York scene, Dane also puts pressure on a famous art dealer, hatching a plan that drops Sharan right into the family's innermost circle. To the outward eye the billionaire Trevellian family appears to be the paradigm of culture and class, but at its core Sharan discovers a family in which loyalties have become horribly twisted and hidden evil festers. With Dane's help, Sharan must pry apart the mystery - and fast, if she doesn't want to become the seventh to disappear into the traceless oblivion that most certain means death.