A dead body in a locked room in a affluent Virginia country house. Nine people present in the house. No confessions and no witnesses. And now a very important document has gone missing—a document that might relate to a CIA scandal in the recent past or to a presidential election in the near future. No one will know exactly what it means until it's found. But would someone be willing to kill for it? The key to this complicated puzzle lies with two sisters who don't quite fit into Washington's high-stakes political arena. Retired Foreign Service agent Richard Michaelson and his friend Marjorie Randolph find themselves at the middle of this whirlwind of political and personal intrigue and must do more than sort clues. Just what secrets is someone trying to bury?