Maurice Halleck, Director of the Commission for the Ministry of Justice, is accused of wrongdoing and then dies in a suspicious car accident. A suicide note and confession are found. But are they legitimate, or was he coerced into writing them before he was taken out to be killed? Although the official investigation finds Maurie guilty and his death a suicide, his children Kirsten and Owen are convinced he was betrayed. They have reason to believe their own mother, Isabel de Benavente, and her lover (Maurie's closest friend and second-in-command), Nick Martens, are involved. Joined together in a blood pact, they vow to uncover the truth and avenge their father's death.

The Hallecks are direct descendants of John Brown, who was hanged in 1859, a martyr in the struggle against slavery. "He is an Angel of Light," Thoreau said of him. Thoreau also said, "I do not wish to kill or be killed but I can forsee circumstances in which both of these things would be by me unavoidable." This is the state of mind into which Kirsten and her brother Owen Halleck are driven by events near at hand but beyond their control.