"I'm pretty sure the victim is a prostitute, and the MO looks just like the murder last month," Joe McGrath said. "The victim was garroted, and the body was arranged like an X. Whoever is killing these women is leaving a calling card behind." 1947 Birmingham, Alabama, cloaks many mysteries under its segregated shroud: glittering social soirées, secret sexual parties, a Machiavellian civic leader, and multiple murders of black prostitutes in dark alleys. Racist police chief, Big Bob Watson, reluctantly assigns Homicide Detective Joe McGrath to the case. The black community stonewalls the investigation. Joe teams up with Sam Rucker, the city's only black private eye. Working across the racial boundaries of the day, they take us step-by-step to the city's heart of darkness in search of an elusive vicious killer.