When a pregnant loan officer is found in the trunk of her car with fatal gunshot wounds, Detectives Briscoe and Green at first suspect a carjacking or the woman's fiance and co-worker. But as the woman's premature baby clings to life in the hospital, the investigation turns to professional basketball player Cris Cody, whose ties to the dead woman may extend beyond the loans she approved for him--and may include reason for him to want her and her unborn child dead.

The police and prosecutors investigate the connection between an award-winning songwriter and the young woman found murdered in his home to discover who would profit by her death at his hands.

Van Buren has reservations about Branch's tactics in luring a Ginza nightclub owner back to New York after the Japanese government is unwilling to extradite him to face charges of conspiracy and murder in the death of his wife on a New York City vacation.