Baxter, Georgia, is a small fictional town located in fictional Tyler County somewhere between Tallahassee, Florida and Thomasville, Georgia. A serial killer is terrorizing the town, killing both men and women with apparent random selection. As a calling card, he leaves a copy of the Rights of Miranda on or near each of his victims. Detective Christie Alexopoulos and her assistant, Stephen Johns, have been assigned to track down and stop the killer. As the investigation proceeds, Officer Johns' daughter, Carolyn, and her best friend, Judy Harper, are kidnapped. Both Officer Johns and Mrs. Harper, Judy's mother, have deceased spouses and as a means of coping, turn to each other for emotional support as more bodies turn up and progress in finding the girls and the killer seems negligible at best. A subplot runs throughout the story as the town mechanic attends the Police Academy in preparation for fulfilling a life long ambition of becoming a law enforcement officer. Southern small town characteristics and customs intersperse with the plot as it develops around the Southern Pines Golf and Country Club, the new Baxter Mall, the Police Academy, and South Georgia's countryside.