Working over Christmas isn't all bad. For insurance investigator D.D. McGil, who lost her husband two years ago, a routine job offers welcome distraction. But who could guess that running employee background checks at Hi-Data, a major software company in Chicago's Silicon Valley, would lead to three dead bodies, counterfeit money, and a killer on her tail? The electrocuted corpse of a Hi-Data partner, who just happens to be her ex-brother-in-law, is only the first nasty surprise in this deadly web of corporate treachery. Is it possible that her aunt's newfound Robert Burns discovery - a literary treasure worth millions if authenticated - is somehow connected? Relying on her own tools of the trade and the preternatural fact-finding skills of her antiquarian bookseller friend, D.D. slowly pieces together a sordid case of high tech villainy, which turns out to be shockingly linked to her husband's mysterious death.