Dr. Derek Crowe is a former reputed clinical psychologist, specializing in the study of the criminal mind, with intimate knowledge of what drives men to commit the wicked deeds that land them under his microscope. A resulting introspective journey leads Dr. Crowe to his own epiphany that he, just like all men, is capable of committing the same atrocities as these evil men if only he were to allow himself to tap into his inner darkness, divorced from society's norms. He is now the ruler of a vast criminal empire, usurped from 5 of his subjects that he had befriended; before killing each of them for the purpose of taking their worldly possessions. He now lives his life unencumbered by morality, led only by the darkness within. Business for Dr. Crowe has been profitable and ever-growing. He has, however, been predestined to meet his match, and his end, in the form of a blonde spitfire Internal Affairs operative of the Toronto Police Service named, Lindsey Trace, whose husband, a member of the Drug Squad, had been killed a year before the events of the novel begin. Trace has been sent on official business to investigate corruption within the Squad, where the corrupt operatives in question are in the back pocket of Dr. Crowe. She can confide in nobody, save for an old friend of her deceased husband, and in nothing, save for her ingenuity. Her journey of revenge leads her down the darkest path on a route through written death threats, assassination attempts, discovered treachery, negotiations and accords with enemies and a gradual descent of her own into villainy.