Arne buys a house in suburban Los Angeles, only to discover that the previous owner died in a grisly manner. Then he gets a visit from the dead woman's best friend, who is convinced that she didn't commit suicide. Together, they investigate what Tilly is sure must be a murder, and come up against the toughest moral dilemma of their lives.

A newspaper reporter, who has just won a trial against his newspaper which had fired him, suffers dangerous reprisals at his work.

Someone is killing people in Portland, Oregon, and later blackmails the relatives, who profit most from the death, to pay him for this "service". Captain Murtaugh leads the police investigation. When his wife starts feeling stalked, he suspects his current case is related to his last one in Chicago. He never told his wife the whole truth about what happened - now he has to fear for her life.