In the seventh book in the award-winning Inspector Green series, an old man is found beaten to death on a street corner in Ottawa's Byward Market in what initially appears to be a mugging gone wrong. The victim is identified as Dr. Samuel Rosenthal, a retired psychiatrist with a contentious approach to life and treatment. When Green discovers that the doctor recently changed his will, disinheriting his estranged son and benefiting several former patients whom he believed he had failed, the mystery only deepens.

But who is the young mystery woman seen visiting Rosenthal every Saturday night? And more importantly, what does she know about the doctor's death? Green races to track down the young visitor, but he is unprepared for the final resolution that leaves him grappling with the ultimate meaning of justice.