侦探哈里·博什一直为一宗少女失踪案所困扰。他相信这个少女已经不在人世，但找不到尸体。他认为他已经发现了真凶，却没有证据。

多年以后，警方意外抓获了一个连环杀手。连环杀手承认哈里关注的那个少女也是他的受害者之一。凶手能说出许多不为外界所知的案件细节，并且声称在案发后曾经给警方打过电话。哈里在档案里发现了这条电话记录，从此陷入了深深的自责之中。他不能原谅自己，是他的疏忽使凶手逍遥法外这么多年。

凶手和地方检察院做了一个交易，他交代出他所犯下的所有罪行，而地方检察院必须保证他不被判处死刑。哈里痛恨这样的交易，但地方检察官为了自己的政治利益答应了凶手的要求。然而，在带领警方寻找尸体的途中，凶手却逃脱了。

In 1993, Harry Bosch was assigned the case of a missing person, Marie Gesto. The young woman was never found - dead or alive - and the case has haunted Bosch ever since. Thirteen years later Bosch is in the Open-Unsolved Unit, where he still keeps the Gesto file on his desk, when he gets a call from the DA's office. A man accused of two heinous killings is willing to come clean in regard to several other murders in a deal to avoid the death penalty. One of those murders, he says, is the killing of Marie Gesto. In confirming the confession Bosch must get close to the man he has sought - and hated - for thirteen years. Bosch's whole being as a cop begins to crack when he comes to realise that he and his partner missed a clue back in 1993 which could have led them to Waits and would have stopped the nine murders that followed the killing of Marie Gesto...