New Iberia, Louisiana. Detective Dave Robicheaux is hunting down a serial killer responsible for the deaths of several young women. Returning from yet another horrifying crime scene he meets Hollywood star Elrod T. Sykes. The star, who is currently in town shooting his latest film financed by ‘Baby Feet’ Balboni, the local hood, tells Dave that he has seen floating in the swamp the partially decomposed body of a black man in chains. The discovery unleashes painful memories of a previous case for Robicheaux. At the same time he begins to suspect that the two cases are somehow connected. But the closer Robicheaux’s investigations bring him to the murderer, the closer the murderer gets to Robicheaux’s own family...