They're one of the country's most telegenic couples: beloved TV journalist Sara Lowell and New York's hottest basketball star, Michael Silverman. In a Manhattan clinic, a doctor has dedicated his life to eradicating a devastating disease. One by one, his patients are getting well -- and, one by one, they're being targeted by a serial killer. And now Michael has been diagnosed with the disease.

Convinced that her beloved twenty-eight-year-old son was killed in spite of a police ruling that he committed suicide, archaeologist Louise Cantor travels throughout the world in search of answers.

It is 1987, and only one person has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus -- her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance...