Richard Baker awakens from a hallucinatory nightmare in his estranged wife's Mercedes in the middle of nowhere. The passenger seat is slathered in blood, and the windows and floor are streaked with it. His hands and clothes are also covered. The only sign of Maura Baker is her purse that rests in a coagulated pool on the floor. Rich, still reeling from a ferocious hangover, remembers very little of the party he attended the previous evening at which he may, or may not, have seen his wife. His instincts impel him to flee, but before he can, police surround the car, and he is taken into custody.

Rookie detective Glory Kane with her troubled partner Jake McKay must determine what happened to Maura Baker. To Detective McKay it's an open and shut case - Rich, a millionaire real estate developer, murdered Maura and disposed of her body to avoid a huge divorce settlement. In fact, some of the evidence supports that conclusion. However, as much as Glory wants to successfully wrap up her first homicide, to her the case has too many loose ends, and she and her partner are in constant conflict.

When a hunchbacked petty crook named Tucker Hines wanders onto the scene with information that just might link Maura's disappearance to an underworld murder, the case suddenly swerves in an entirely different direction. Bodies begin to pile up, each with a link to the mystery surrounding Maura. The evidence propels Kane and McKay through a series of twists and turns and leads to an astonishing and unexpected conclusion as the two detectives try to discover what really happened on Richard Baker's last stop before dawn.