In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the Claremont Hotel when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms. Strangely, Sullivan's investigation brings up another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. The case keeps leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris' sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth, Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion.