With a brief note to her employer, Dorrie Mayo left her job - and another note taped to a neighbour's door claimed she was taking her baby to live with her in-laws on the other side of the U.S. A natural enough thing for a young widow with a fifteen-month-old daughter to do.

Only why didn't Dorrie tell any of her friends where she was going? And why were her notes typewritten when Dorrie didn't own a typewriter? For Maddox and his colleagues of the Wilcox Street precinct, this is a conundrum that will take all their skill and resources to solve.