Freshman Senator Tom Roper discovers that four of his acquaintances and their wives or lovers have been brutally murdered by the same killer, who leaves a five number sequence and two bloody initials at each of the murder scenes. Circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that Senator Roper is the intended fifth victim, but is he? And just who is the killer and what motivates these savage acts? 

The mystery, set in the Washington D.C. area, also touches several important political figures and those closest to Roper—including his lover, who works for the Metro D.C. crime lab. Also the target of others who wish him harm, the iconoclastic senator races against a set time frame to solve the riddle of the numbers and letters and to prevent the final murder in this deadly sequence.