Indianapolis social worker Adele Buffington's caseload is unusually heavy: Solve a murder, find a missing mother and her young daughters, stay alive Adele Buffington is working late when she's startled by an intruder. The next day a man is found murdered. The note pinned to his jacket reads, "Hands off, social workers!" Then, a woman and her two young daughters go missing. When Adele decides to launch her own investigation, with the help--or hindrance--of PI Albert Samson and Lt. Leroy Powder, she quickly finds herself out of her depth, haunted by echoes of her own past and by a killer who could obliterate her future.