The two liars: Roger Kidd, eminent musicologist, respected teacher, devoted father; and Catherine Lapouge, enigmatic idealist, committed activist, brilliant leader. Both are at once the hunters and the hunted in this story of mystery and deceit where little is what it appears and no one is quite who they say. Roger Kidd has the world--respect, a tenured position at a prestigious university, and a gifted young son. When one afternoon his son disappears, everything changes. Suddenly there is no one whom he can trust. As his ordered world begins to collapse, he is drawn into a high-powered cabalistic organization and the hunt for the legendary Lapouge. His search leads him through a maze of intrigue and deceit into the secretive world of eugenics and utopian ideals. Kidd's story is one of a son gone mysteriously missing and of obsession born of desperation. His relentless pursuit of his son's abductor jeopardizes his life as well as those close to him, and forces him to decide whether the truth is balanced by the pain of finding it. Lapouge's story is one of a world on the brink of destruction and a fanatical drive to save it regardless of the personal cost or the moral implications of her actions.