A damaged and vicious international opera diva absconds to Europe with her baby daughter. North Carolina legal eagle Marcus Glenwood, the hero of Bunn's earlier thriller The Great Divide, is surprised when high-powered CEO Dale Steadman approaches him for help on a case, since Glenwood recently dealt Steadman's company a courtroom thrashing. The CEO's ex-wife, gorgeous opera star Erin Brandt, has kidnapped the one-year-old daughter she had virtually abandoned a year earlier in order to pursue her glamorous career. Glenwood finds his initial effort to make his case stymied by a rival lawyer as well as a shield of celebrity that makes it difficult to get Brandt into court. He finally succeeds by sending his fiancee and research assistant Kirsten Stansted off to Europe to locate Brandt and the child. Stansted makes progress, but the situation deteriorates considerably when she is attacked by a mysterious stranger. Brandt soon turns up murdered in New York, and Steadman finds himself arrested after a coincidental trip to Manhattan as the crime is being committed.