When Kinsey Millhone answers her office door late one night, she lets in more darkness than she realizes. Janice Kepler is a grieving mother who can’t let the death of her beautiful daughter Lorna alone. The police agree that Lorna was murdered, but a suspect was never apprehended and the trail is now ten months cold. Kinsey pieces together Lorna’s young life: a dull day job at the local water treatment plant, spiced by sidelines in prostitution and porno. She tangles with Lorna’s friends: a local late-night DJ; a sweet, funny teenage hooker; Lorna’s sloppy landlord and his exotic wife. But to find out which one, if any, turned killer, Kinsey will have to inhabit a netherworld from which she may never return.