Rep and Melissa Pennyworth go to a re-enactment of a Civil War battle in Kansas City, Missouri in search of a cutting-edge copyright case for Rep and find a corpse instead. Linda Damon, Melissa's best girlhood friend, worked for the victim before his death, and on one regrettable occasion got a bit too intimately involved in her job. Her husband, Peter, an enthusiastic Civil War hobbyist, had a motive, an opportunity, and a Civil War saber that turns out to have been drenched in the victim's blood. Logically, Rep's knowledge of trademark and copyright law, Melissa's Ph.D in Literature, and the passionate Anglomania of Peter's boss, librarian Diane Klimchock, should be no help in what is clearly a job for the police. When Rep and Melissa are involved, however, logic is seldom a reliable guide. Their contribution ends up being essential to the solution of a crime whose roots go back to an execution during World War II and a contemporary hatred much more dangerous than one husband's jealousy.