Philly Prep English teacher Amanda Pepper isn't sure what category her bright senior student Adam Evans falls into, but she fears for him. Increasingly erratic, unkempt, and isolated, Adam is an accident waiting to happen. So when a young woman is murdered at the landmark Free Library while Amanda and her class are touring the premises, Adam - now mysteriously missing - becomes the prime suspect.

But unlike the police - including her detective boyfriend - Amanda is dead certain that Adam is both innocent and in terrible danger. And he's not alone. For the more Amanda sifts through the layers of the victim's life, the closer she comes to losing her own.