Kidnapped by a cult of religious fanatics, an Austin school bus driver and eleven of his young charges have been held beneath the ground of the group's highly fortified compound for forty-six days. While a team of federal negotiators begins to lose all hope of rescuing the hostages, crime reporter Molly Cates sets out to discover everything she can about the cult's iron-willed leader, Samuel Mordecai.

And as the clock ticks inexorably, she takes the role of Clarice Starling opposite Mordecai's Lecter, engaging in a psychological confrontation every bit as harrowing as any in Silence of the Lambs.