Driving late at night, Rutledge encounters a frightened woman standing beside the body of a man shot on a deserted road. The apparent witness knows little about the victim, and the investigation soon reaches a bookseller whose influence in the community conceals bitter private disputes. A second killing suggests that the murderer is selecting targets according to a logic rooted in loss rather than immediate gain.
The roadside discovery places Rutledge outside formal police procedure from the first moment, making his own observations unusually important. The case explores how bereavement can harden into a demand that others suffer equally, while post-war communities maintain polite surfaces over unresolved grief.
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