Two murders in one hotel on the same night - coincidence? The first victim is a cleaner, but it is the second corpse that sets alarm bells ringing in Sydney's Homicide and Serial Offenders Unit, for the victim proves to be the wife of the American ambassador. And as if he didn't have enough to contend with, fending off interested parties from the FBI, CIA and federal authorities, Scobie Malone finds himself confronted with a long-forgotten girlfriend who is now the widow of a wife-beater.