Before his murder, meek, retiring Edwin Raines secretly wove a complicated tapestry of false identities and unexplained activities that even his widow is at a loss to understand. When magazine publisher Danny Skerett begins looking into the curious, covert life that his friend Edwin led before his death, he is drawn into an investigation that ultimately leads to revelations of murder, arson, fraud, drug trafficking, adultery, and an extremely inconvenient illegitimate child.