In the most dangerous city in the country, one controlled by a sadistic gang called the Sons of Ares, Kyra Roberts is searching the deep places for someone... Kyra has come to Abstreuse city to find someone she's lost, but walking the underbelly--a dark alley system residents call the Slip Mire--even in disguise, is rife with dangers. Kyra must stay on her toes if she intends to live. After crossing paths several times with the same detective, she wonders if his work and hers might be connected. Gabe Nichols has worked homicide in Abstreuse for three years. Dead prostitutes and gang violence are part of the night shift. When a woman who looks like a street junkie but acts like an intellectual saves his life, he's intrigued. Another woman shows up at his crime scene, and Gabe's instincts kick into high gear when she clams up. Two cases involving strange women who won't tell what they know are too coincidental. If Gabe and Kyra can't find a way to collaborate, they may not live to see the sunrise. Doomed, like so many others, to become gray, unmarked graves in a forgotten fracture of the Slip Mire.