A pretty young girl is butchered in her Greenwich Village apartment. The prime suspect, a minister's son, is found dead in his jail cell. As far as the NYPD is concerned, the case is closed. But ex-cop Matt Scudder, is persuaded to look into the case żeby the dead girl's father. And suddenly he's up to his neck in sleaze and corruption, phoney religious cults and murderous lust. In New York's underbelly, the children have no choice but to pay the price for their parent's most unspeakable sins...