As he carves a new life on the quarantine moon first revealed in "The Lazaretto," Gregor Lepov is hired to solve the perplexing disappearances of its citizens into a mysterious basement apartment. Detective Ed MacNally of Lazaretto Homicide is busy training his new partner, Menya Russell, with whom he is investigating the murder of a man whose body was recently uncovered after thirty years. Thieves, corpses, ladies and liars lure Lepov and MacNally into the Lazaretto's disturbing past. Has the killer that was active thirty years ago begun killing again? And after Lepov is nearly killed by a woman who looks too much like Lilly Stewart, he must decide who he can really trust in a city that shuns faith and embraces fear.