The Air Force Academy, one of the finest military institutions in the world, is reeling. During an ongoing sex scandal investigation ordered by congress, two female cadets are found brutally murdered, one who turns out to be pregnant.
When Major Malone learns he's been assigned the case, he is stunned - he's a less than stellar officer and was in jail sleeping off a DWI charge. Once he begins the investigation, Malone, a former cadet, finally understands why he is chosen - the murders are linked to an unsolved rape fourteen years earlier, where the victim was a girl who lived across the hall. More victims turn up, including the mother of one of the murdered girls, and it becomes clear to Malone that he's dealing with a sadistic killer who will stop at nothing to keep the secrets of the past buried.
With each startling revelation, Malone unravels a strand of a diabolical web, which leads to the highest levels of the Academy, including the three star superintendent and the head football coach. Or does it? The web is ingenious and nothing is as it seems. A realisation that comes to Malone too late. In a climactic ending, he finally uncovers the shocking motive behind the murders - a motive which points to the last person anyone would suspect . . . Himself!
