Theresa MacLean is a forensic scientist. Her fiancé Paul Cleary is a homicide detective.  Their day begins when they are called out to the discovery of the body of Mark Ludlow. Mark has been beaten to death in front of his own home.

When Paul goes to Mark's place of work, the Federal Reserve Bank, to question his co-workers, he walks right into a robbery gone bad. The robbers have taken hostages and are demanding 4 million dollars for their release. This is not a demand that the professionally trained hostage negotiator is prepared to meet.

Paul is shot in the leg. Using her powers of persuasion, Theresa convinces the ringleader to exchange her for Paul so that he may get treatment. Once inside the bank, Theresa begins to use all her training and skills to end the hostage situation and get the others out alive.

With Theresa on the inside and the hostage negotiator on the outside, they work to find out what has motivated the two robbers, along with why Mark Ludlow was beaten to death.

This was a high anxiety book with tense situations at every turn. There was no way to put this book down until the final page.