Harry is disturbed to be called to a crime scene at the home of a family he knows, and finds the bodies of the mother and her teenage daughter, while her stepson lies in a coma - although her toddler has been left unharmed. The police suspect the woman's husband to be the killer - but the pathologist is not so sure of his guilt. The double-murder investigation reveals more about the tangled lives of the inhabitants of Magnolia Drive

Nikki is approached to help identify the paltry remains of a serial killer's undiscovered victims.