The story takes place in the mid to late 1940s after WWII. The era when science didn't play the leading role it does today and the majority of thought-provoking crimes were solved with confessions. The very young, and attractive, 'District Nurse' named, Carol Branden, is found close to the Beach on Lake Michigan, near the Marina Hotel, murdered She had been strangled and brutally battered, The case-to the local Inhabitants looks open-and-shut. A local window peeper; one Timothy Hillman, was seen, lurking just outside the nurse's home on the night of the murder, and is discovered to have sexually assaulted another girl on the same spot where Carol Branden's body was found. On a request from the Michigan State Police to the Governor of Illinois for assistance; Chicago PD sends Detective Inspector Rex Feral, (((Latin for: King Of The Beasts))), and his ever disagreeable, out-spoken partner, Detective Sergeant DeChellis, to investigate. Feral, is a man deeply concerned with solving a crime by understanding the criminal. The crimes he works on are usually solved through his searching assessment of all the human factors involved. Detective DeChellis is convinced the peeper DID IT The solution seems clear. The local window peeper confesses and recants, but is charged nonetheless. No other suspect turns up; Case closed. Then ...