It's New Year's Eve weekend, and in the midst of the revelry Miguel Mendez is beaten to death outside a convenience store. Lt. Joe Kenda faces a challenging investigation, his only clues coming from a drunken witness and Miguel's strange injuries.

When a woman's severed head is found, Lt. Joe Kenda uses forensics and interrogation to find both her body and her killer; a young man's murder looks like a robbery gone wrong until Kenda investigates further.