One August evening in 1914, a bushwhacker ended a pleasant outing by blowing a hole in Bill McBride, kidnapping and ravaging Bill’s fiancée, and wounding Alafair Tucker’s daughter Mary. All Mary knows is that the crime had something to do with the Fourth of July.

Or is there more? The answer seems to be working its way through the fog of Mary’s shock and grief and floating to the surface of her consciousness. Several malicious acts suggest that Bill’s killer is still around and attempting to cover his tracks.

Can Mary remember the crime before the murderer manages to eliminate everyone who could identify him?

Former Athens homicide detective Andreas Kaldis soon finds himself in a race against time as he tries to catch a serial killer on the lovely Mykonos island.