A wealthy business owner asks investigator Claire Chastain to solve a simple case. Is his employee stealing or not? From the moment she's hired, subtle clues tell her something's wrong: the unbusinesslike business owner, the lingering scent of a woman on the stairs, the rustle in the curtains where someone watches from above. Claire's gut tells her the case isn't about theft. Her investigation turns up a pathologically anxious suspect, a deeply dysfunctional family, and a murder that she herself appears to have committed. "If I had known what this case would turn into," she reflects, "I never would have accepted it. No one walks into a burning house." But she's in it, and she has to find her way out...