A routine assignment transporting two death-row prisoners to their executions goes fatally wrong leaving Dave Robicheaux brutally wounded & his partner dead. Obsessed with revenge Dave is persuaded by the DEA to go undercover into the torrid sleepy depths of New Orleans a volatile world of Mafia drug-running & Cajun voodoo magic. He becomes irrevocably snarled in the nightmarish web surrounding Mafia don Tony Cardo & must put himself against his own worst fears in order to survive.