Sheriff Ike Schwartz thinks a body left in the town's urgent care clinic and a strange break-in at Callend University are connected and he believes it is related to The Virgin of Tenderness, an icon in the faculty member's possession. Then, what appears to be a microdot is found on the icon. "The presence of this bit of CIA nostalgia brings in Ike's friend Charlie Garland and the forces from Langley. Ike has no wish to engage with them or their problems. He has killers to apprehend—in spite of the meddling by government agencies. But there is more to these murders than meets the eye. A dead CIA agent and a rogue handler could trigger an international incident...."