偵探哈裏·博什一直為一宗少女失蹤案所睏擾。他相信這個少女已經不在人世，但找不到屍體。他認為他已經發現瞭真凶，卻沒有證據。

多年以後，警方意外抓獲瞭一個連環殺手。連環殺手承認哈裏關注的那個少女也是他的受害者之一。凶手能說齣許多不為外界所知的案件細節，並且聲稱在案發後曾經給警方打過電話。哈裏在檔案裏發現瞭這條電話記錄，從此陷入瞭深深的自責之中。他不能原諒自己，是他的疏忽使凶手逍遙法外這麼多年。

凶手和地方檢察院做瞭一個交易，他交代齣他所犯下的所有罪行，而地方檢察院必須保證他不被判處死刑。哈裏痛恨這樣的交易，但地方檢察官為瞭自己的政治利益答應瞭凶手的要求。然而，在帶領警方尋找屍體的途中，凶手卻逃脫瞭。

In 1993, Harry Bosch was assigned the case of a missing person, Marie Gesto. The young woman was never found - dead or alive - and the case has haunted Bosch ever since. Thirteen years later Bosch is in the Open-Unsolved Unit, where he still keeps the Gesto file on his desk, when he gets a call from the DA's office. A man accused of two heinous killings is willing to come clean in regard to several other murders in a deal to avoid the death penalty. One of those murders, he says, is the killing of Marie Gesto. In confirming the confession Bosch must get close to the man he has sought - and hated - for thirteen years. Bosch's whole being as a cop begins to crack when he comes to realise that he and his partner missed a clue back in 1993 which could have led them to Waits and would have stopped the nine murders that followed the killing of Marie Gesto...