When the call comes in Detective Peter Decker can hardly believe it. A rape at the yeshiva up in the canyon & hill country behind Los Angeles? True there had been some recent anti-Semitic vandalism but never any violence. Not only that but this was a strict Orthodox Jewish community self-enclosed & suspicious of outsiders. Not much chance theyd co-operate with the police. & he is right
- as Rina Lazarus the frustratingly fascinating young widow who found the victim proves when she talks about her world. Outsider he may be but Decker has a feeling in his policemans bones that the cost of privacy to this determined community could be murderously high...