In his third and most troubling case (following Dante's Poison and Dante's Wood), blind psychiatrist Mark Angelotti is asked to evaluate Rachel Lazarus, the estranged wife of a slain University of Chicago professor. She has confessed to his murder but is mounting a "battered woman" defense, and though Mark has been drafted by the prosecution, he begins to doubt his objectivity as details emerge that parallel his own history. When a tip connects the murder to another case, and suggests that Rachel may be innocent, Mark's investigation suddenly becomes far more treacherous—it seems someone will do anything to make sure the widow takes the fall.