In this fourth Lew Travis mystery, Lew is confronted with the loss of a close friend with whom he worked at the Sienna Sentinel, who recently died in the local hospital under curious circumstances. As Lew begins to collect evidence, he realizes there is reason for suspicion in a number of directions. The seventy-two year-old curmudgeonly "investigative reporter", battling his own demons, pursues clue after clue, which lead him to a homeless camp in the forest and an empty church with a strange occupant. Relying on his dogged determination and canny intuition he pieces together the facts, aided by the sundry cast of characters the readers of this series have come to know.