Detective Erickson is called to the scene of a horrific murder during a frigid early winter morning where he meets a fourteen-year-old, Alexandria, who is on her way home. He will find that their paths cross frequently as he desperately tries to beat the forty-eight-hour window that all murder investigators have before a case goes cold.

As he chases shadows and leads that go nowhere, Alexandria unknowingly comes to his aid and provides him with insights and angles that eventually lead the lawman to Vjosa, a powerful, crafty, cold-blooded killer who now hunts the detective, his partner, and their family. Many lives are lost as the killer butchers and tortures everyone who has anything to do with Erickson.

Quickly closing in on the detective, Erickson feels his life hanging in the balance and begins a race to see who catches whom first. Alexandria may be the key to solving the case, but she has since disappeared, being everywhere, then suddenly nowhere.

Before everything can come to an end, the gumshoe has something that he must tell Alexandria that is all dependent on the play of the cat and mouse. Will he live to see another day? What must the detective tell his muse?