It never rains, but it pours in Portland, Oregon. At least that’s how it seems to Detective Galen Young. The police are already busy with several high-profile crimes, including the abduction of a four-year-old girl from a local shopping mall, when another person goes missing. Robert Armlin, the Opinion Page editor for the Oregon Sentinel was last seen exercising at his local fitness club on Saturday afternoon, and his frantic wife alerts the police about his failure to return home that evening. Detective Young quickly exhausts any possible leads into the editor’s disappearance, so he delves into Mr. Armlin’s prior newspaper columns to gain insights into his personality and to discover any enemies Armlin may have made through his opinion pieces. There are many who disagree with the editor’s viewpoint, and they are not shy about letting him know it. In the midst of the investigation, Detective Young’s family is struck by a personal tragedy that leaves the detective struggling to balance the demands of work and home. Little progress is being made in the cases of the missing editor and the kidnapped girl when an unexpected connection between the two is revealed that leaves Galen and his colleagues scrambling for answers.