After a night of heavy drinking, Nick Stefanos passes out in a public park. Some time before dawn, the slam of a car door and a steady, frantic moan wake him. He hears a man say, "You already been a punk, and shit. Least you can do is go out a man." And then a muffled scream. And that's how Nick Stefanos comes to investigate the murder of Calvin Jeter, an investigation that will take him through the heart of Washington, D.C. and into the unlit alleys of the human soul.