Hours after a thoroughbred racehorse collapses and dies after finishing last in a race he was favored to win, his trainer--a young woman with a promising career--is found dead on a suburban Chicago beach. To the police, it's a simple case of murder-suicide. But Mike Hegan, veteran police detective, refuses to believe the official story. Instead of retiring like they want him to, he embarks upon a search for the truth, and finds himself on a Caribbean island where scores are settled--and lives are lost.