When the intoxicated son of a mob boss kills a man on the streets of Kalamazoo, Michigan, he is convicted and sent to prison. Months later, an associate of his father breaks him out of a northern Michigan prison during a winter storm. When the getaway vehicle slides into a ditch, they find refuge in a small church, where they hold three young mothers and a nun captive until backup from the mob boss arrives. Then the mobster's son pulls out a gun and fires four shots. Decades later, the women's three orphaned children, who were given new identities, are now adults. A successful businesswoman who was abducted during the escape and the retired police detective who investigated the escape and murders summon the three to northern Michigan, where they learn about their past. Shortly afterward, a twist of fate reveals their identities to their mothers' murderer-and now their lives are in danger. In this novel, a mob boss's son kills a man in a drunken accident, setting of a decades-long chain of sordid events affecting the lives of many innocent people.