Dr. Kay Scarpetta is about to leave on a Miami vacation with her husband, FBI-profiler Benton Wesley, in celebration of her birthday when she notices seven shiny pennies, all with the date 1981, lined up on a wall behind their Cambridge, Massachusetts, house. Shortly later, her phone rings and Detective Pete Marino informs her of a murder near her house. Scarpetta investigates and her investigation unearths clues that implicate her techno-genius niece, Lucy, in what appears to be a series of uncannily accurate snipings.